Company Culture
Netflix (3.9 stars) has pledged it will no longer include scenes where characters smoke or use e-cigarettes in future original content with ratings below TV-14 or PG-13 except for "reasons of historical or factual accuracy." The streaming service has also promised to limit depictions of smoking in its original shows and movies with higher age ratings, "unless it's essential to the creative vision of the artist or because it's character-defining (historically or culturally important.)" The decision comes after a study by anti-smoking group Truth Initiative found that tobacco imagery in shows and movies popular among 15- to- 24-year-olds more than tripled in the past year—with season two of Netflix’s Stranger Things depicting tobacco use in every episode. NPR
More than 200 corporations signed a friend-of-the-court brief last week urging the Supreme Court to rule that job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity violates federal civil rights law. Some of the bigger corporations to sign the brief included Amazon (3.0 stars) , American Airlines (2.8 stars) , Bank of America (3.3 stars) , Ben & Jerry’s (2.9 stars) , Coca-Cola (3.2 stars) , Domino’s Pizza (2.5 stars) , Goldman Sachs (3.4 stars) , IMB (3.3 stars) , Microsoft (3.2 stars) , Morgan Stanley (3.0 stars) , Nike (3.3 stars) , Starbucks (3.2 stars) , Viacom (3.4 stars) , the Walt Disney Co. (3.2 stars) , and Xerox (2.4 stars) . Fortune
What on (Google) Earth is going on at Jigsaw? You might remember Jigsaw as the Google (3.8 stars) think tank-like organization that made headlines in 2017 when one of its employees sent around an email memo slamming diversity initiatives in tech. But that incident was only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Jigsaw’s culture issues, which employees say are in large part perpetuated by an ineffectual leadership team. VICE
InHerSight Research
The benefits you value change as your life and career evolve. We looked at what early career women—usually defined as ages 20 to 25—care about most at work. InHerSight
Quick Hits
Although wage gaps and inequality most heavily affect Hispanic and black women, the New York Times reports that their participation in the job market is growing. Job participation among Hispanic women between the ages of 25 and 54 grew more than any other demographic—with employment rates jumping 2.2 percentage points since 2007. The second highest growth in job participation among a demographic was that of black women, growing 1.6 percentage points since 2007. The NY Times
Billionaire hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein has been arrested on charges of sex trafficking by federal prosecutors in New York. Epstein was arrested more than a decade ago in Florida on charges of trafficking underage girls, but was handed an extraordinarily lenient plea deal, in which he served only a few months in a luxury facility that allowed him to leave during the day. NPR
Pop Culture
Grown-ish star and R&B singer Halle Bailey has officially been cast as Ariel in the 2020 live-action version of The Little Mermaid , which has spurred some truly lovely fan art . Still, although Bailey is as lovely and talented as a sea princess can be, some people are up in arms because she’s black. Let’s shut that racism down right now: Mermaids are fictional creatures. Bailey doesn’t need to be a red-haired white woman to bring Ariel to life. Bye, haters. Refinery29
The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team emerged victorious from the FIFA Women’s World Cup on Sunday, defeating the Dutch to secure the championship win for the fourth time. In many ways, the team became the face of the equal pay movement as they lobbied prize money equal to that of the men’s team. Their victory is one of hope. The NY Times
The Dalai Lama has apologized for the comment he made in an interview last week, when he stated his successor, if she were female, would need to be more attractive than him. The comment was apparently meant as a joke. BBC
Around the World
South Africa: Media and e-commerce corporation Naspers has named Phuti Mahanyele-Dabengwa to the newly created role of CEO of South Africa unit. Mahanyele-Dabengwa, 48, is the first woman and the first black person to hold a CEO position in the company’s 100-plus year history. Her appointment isn’t just significant for Naspers though—only one black woman and only seven men of color run a company listed in the top 40 on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Bloomberg
India: Having to work while experiencing intense period pain can sometimes be downright impossible. But in parts of India, including sugarcane farms and textile factories, women can’t afford to lose a day of wages. That’s why they’re increasingly turning to hysterectomies—and often experience negative health consequences as a result. BBC
Palestine: Thanks to a plethora of cultural, economic, and political barriers, unemployment in Gaza is high at 52 percent. But its women are resilient, and their participation in the workforce has risen 26 percent. Al Jazeera
