It’s Women’s Equality Day! Aug. 26, 2019 marks 99 years since the passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. This is what you need to know about equality in terms of working women. InHerSight
Company Culture
The International Monetary Fund (3.3 stars) has recommended removing one of its own rules that prohibits the appointment of a new managing director aged 65 or older and says they can’t serve in the role past age 70. Removing this restriction could result in the appointment of 66-year-old Kristalina Georgieva, the World Bank‘s chief executive, who was selected by European governments earlier in the month as their nominee to head the fund. Take that, ageism! Bloomberg
A former Google (3.8 stars) employee announced her plans Friday to sue the tech giant on grounds of pregnancy discrimination. According to Chelsey Glasson, her manager at Google made inappropriate comments about her pregnancy, tried to prevent her from going on bedrest, told her that her role wouldn’t be guaranteed to be waiting for her when she returned from leave, and retaliated against her when she tried to get help from human resources. “How I was treated by Google, while fighting a condition that was life-threatening to both me and my daughter, was one of the most difficult experiences of my life,” Glasson wrote on the GoFundMe page she set up to raise money to cover the costs of the lawsuit. VICE
Bumble (4.4 stars) and Tinder (3.9 stars) have gone Greek! Both dating apps are sponsoring parties for Greek houses in the University of Texas system, having fraternities sign exclusive contracts to declare themselves as a Bumble or Tinder house. Under the contracts, the house is guaranteed a certain sum of money, with bonuses available for downloads linked to an event. It’s an apt marketing ploy, as colleges represent the target demographic for users, but critics say a hook-up app monetizing the frat party scene, which is notorious for violence and sexual assault against women, is off-base. Vox
Quick Hits
As The New York Times Magazine’s“1619 Project” continues the ambitious work of reframing our understanding of America, past and present, through the lens of slavery, here is another piece from Vox to add to your reading list. While we reckon with the lasting institutions slavery has yielded in larger society, it’s also important for those of us in the realm of feminism to deal with the ugly parts of our own history—including the role white women occupied within the slave economy. Historian Stephanie Jones-Rogers, author of They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South explains how white women were active participants who leveraged ownership of enslaved people to increase their own power, and not the innocent bystanders historians made them out to be. Vox
The Cherokee Nation is looking to appoint the tribe’s first-ever delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. A treaty with the federal government from nearly 200 years ago outlines the tribe’s right to such a delegate, and Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. says they are choosing to exercise it now because Native American issues continue to rise to the forefront of national politics. The Cherokee Nation Tribal Council will meet later this month to consider confirming Kimberly Teehee, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, to the position. NY Times
Do you know the difference between a mentor and a sponsor? The Harvard Business Review characterizes the distinction, writing, “while a mentor is someone who has knowledge and will share it with you, a sponsor is a person who has power and will use it for you.” Only problem is, women are having trouble securing this kind of support from someone who actually has the power to help them get ahead. Harvard Business Review
Around the World
Switzerland: Thanks to a new law announced Wednesday, Swiss companies with more than 100 employees will be required to prepare and share an independently vetted report examining pay equity by 2021. The law stipulates that firms will have to continue making a report every four years until they find no evidence of a pay gap. Bloomberg
United Kingdom: The UK’s women lawmakers frequently face virulent online abuse, including threats of rape and murder. After one of their colleagues was murdered in 2016, they commissioned a report to study threats made to women political leaders around the world. They found that when trolls target women, they also threaten their families and friends, that the threat of rape in particular is common, and that women politicians of color are more likely to face threats of abuse. Now, the UK’s women politicians are banding together to hold big tech companies accountable when trolls make use of their platforms to host their abuse. NPR
Chile: Two young communist lawmakers, Camila Vallejo and Karol Cariola, are making waves with their labor reform bill. Among other reforms, Vallejo and Cariola propose cutting the maximum work week from 45 fours to 40—and they’re drawing the ire of Chile’s pro-business billionaire president. Bloomberg
