✊Boss Betty ✊ Midweek Analysis: Why ‘The Morning Show’ matters, the self-promotion gap & more

Is anyone else watching “The Morning Show”? It has gotten much better as it’s progressed and whoa, the most recent episode (#8) was a doozie (don’t worry, no spoilers). For those not in the know, the drama — starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, among other big stars — revolves around a fluffy news program thrown into turmoil when the co-host is ousted over a sexual misconduct scandal. Certainly worth a watch as all of us at every career level in every single industry grapple with the surrounding issues of what’s consensual, who’s complicit (though the better question might be, who isn’t?) and how to chart a course forward.

Moving off the TV beat into the sad stats realm (our natural habitat ), did you know that 42 percent of women would rather clean the bathroom than talk about ourselves in front of strangers? It me. The self-promotion gap is real, and it’s bad, and we need to find a way past it. To that end, read our piece on how to build your personal brand as painlessly as possible.

Here’s a handful of other female-powered business news stories we’re tracking:

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, appointed Nobel Prize-winning chemical engineer Frances Arnold to its board of directors. That makes three women and eight men serving as directors for the tech giant. Arnold will get an initial equity award of $1 million in restricted stock.

Efforts to bring more women into the executive ranks have had some success (though quite obviously not enough) while initiatives aimed at increasing racial diversity among top corporate leaders have stalled out, according to a report. “[V]ery few respondents — including white employees — think that white women are using their power to advocate for other underrepresented groups,” the report found.

 Following an investigation revealing that popular direct-to-consumer luggage brand Away, founded by Jennifer Rubio and Stephanie Korey, has some quite serious baggage — including a “culture of intimidation and constant surveillance” — a new CEO has been named to replace Korey. Lululemon executive Stuart Haselden will be the company’s chief executive, while Korey will take on the role of executive chair. People, don’t be mean to your people. It doesn’t work out for anyone.

Democrats are taking advantage of President Trump’s desire to create Space Force, a proposed galactic branch of the military, to try to pass legislation ensuring paid parental leave for more than 2 million federal workers. So right, there’s no actual connection between paid leave and militarizing space, but, you know, politics.

Not necessarily a business story but Finland’s Sanna Marin will be the world’s youngest sitting prime minister and the nation’s third female prime minister. THIRD. She will head up a coalition of four other parties, each of which is led by a woman. EACH OF WHICH ARE LED BY A WOMAN.

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