Boss Betty✊ newsletter: Your weekly 5-minute feminist digest

The gender news was mixed this week, with some spots of sunlight here and there but overall pretty cloudy skies with high winds. As we heard a local weatherperson charmingly say earlier this week, “If you like the tousled hair look, you’re in luck!”

News to note 📝

A tampon removal glove? Yes, this offensive and totes unnecessary product from the minds of men got venture funding. “Did you know that those who menstruate need a disposable glove to remove a tampon? Neither did I,” wrote the smart female author of this piece, going on to report that two men in the German edition of “Dragons’ Den” (a televised business pitch competition) were awarded funds for their invention of disposable “Pinky Gloves.” WTF people. [Women’s Agenda]

Why do women leave Big Law firms? Let us count the ways… “Blatantly unfair” compensation systems that are “rife with gender bias” is the answer, according to a new study of experienced female attorneys by the American Bar Association. Relatedly, elite global law firm Linklaters is set to appoint a woman as senior partner for the first time in its 183-year history. [ABA Journal & Bloomberg]

The boycott of West Hollywood’s storied Chateau Marmont hotel is growing amid accusations of pervasive sexual harassment and other mistreatment of workers. Following the decision by several celebrities and entertainment unions to boycott the hotel because of what its former employees describe as a toxic work environment, the California Democratic Party is formally jumping on the bandwagon. The hotel claims the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union is just trying to cause trouble for non-union members. [The Hollywood Reporter]

“Many in the conference are offended [by] being told that we are ineligible because we are men,” said one male GOP lawmaker of the replacements being considered for Rep. Liz Cheney. The Wyoming congresswoman, who is likely to be ousted from her role as House Republican Conference chair over her refusal to support the lie that the presidential election was stolen, is the only woman on Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s leadership team, which presents a problem for Republicans. “There are several very capable members who are interested in having conversations and reject the notion that it has to be a woman,” said this same GOP pol. Boo-freaking-hoo, please see a zillion years of history for context as to why that’s a rubbish argument. [The Hill]

Things aren’t so fab for workers at Kate Hudson’s Fabletics brand. Dozens of workers at a Taiwanese factory in the tiny country of Lesotho, located within the borders of South Africa, say they face rampant sexual and physical abuse at the production facility where they manufacture Fabletics activewear. Several of the women interviewed said their underwear and vulvas were routinely exposed during daily searches and that they were verbally assaulted and humiliated by management. Fabletics said they had no prior knowledge of the alleged abuse and suspended operations at the factory. [Time]

Numbers to know 🔢

 $130M   Amount Jessica Alba made when her Honest Company went public this week. The actor-turned-entrepreneur is one of the few — and the youngest — Latinx women to take a company public. Alba founded the eco-friend baby and beauty product brand, which is now worth more than $2 billion, in 2011.
 4   Number of extra months into this year it took moms to earn what dads did last year. May 5 was #MomsEqualPay Day, the day in 2021 when the earnings of the average mother working full-time finally caught up to what the average dad earned in 2020. Gross.
 4%   Decline in U.S. birthrate. For the sixth year in a row, the birth rate went down in 2020. There were about 3,.6 million births in the country last year, the lowest number since 1979. (Please see a healthy dose of context for that in the tweet below!👇)
 1/3   Chunk of Basecamp employees who exited the popular project management software company after its white male founders banned “societal and political discussions” on its internal company platforms. Since, to many people, that might not sound like such a bad idea, consider the case of employees who feel marginalized — a not unlikely scenario given the cultural reckoning the company was in for — with seemingly no recourse.

And, in closing, a tweet to think on