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Welcome to the Thanksgiving edition of the Boss Betty newsletter, in which we award turkeys to the news that makes us want to totally tryptophan out this holiday and champagne bottles to the items that deserve a "Cheers!" Without further ado:

Business Insider's deep dive into the allegedly "toxic, sexually charged nightmare" at Bloomberg L.P., founded, of course, by billionaire and newly announced Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg.

There's a second lawsuit seeking to overturn California’s law requiring women on boards, which mandates that any public companies headquartered in the state have at least one female director by the end of this year. The plaintiff, a Libertarian group called The Pacific Legal Foundation, is suing on the grounds that the legislation violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution. Um, no. That argument is clearly antithetical to the spirit of the clause, which is part of the 14th Amendment. 

Companies that appoint women to their boards see a decrease in market value for two years. Why? Well, copious evidence shows that it's (obviously) not because they perform any worse, so there are two potential explanations: 1) Investors are biased and perceive women as less competent; and/or 2) The stock market sees the appointments as a shift in priorities away from shareholder value in favor of social good, the horror (also, those two goals are not mutually exclusive).

Now onto the good stuff. In the spirit of giving thanks, here are the stories we'd like to raise a glass to (with some caveats, because who are we even without them?):

More and more employees are sharing their salaries via Google docs, including employment information as well as details on gender, race and sexual orientation. A couple of weeks ago journalists started entering their info into a shared spreadsheet and last week ad agency staffers began their own version. Though the salaries and other details need to be taken with a giant grain of salt (maybe a heaping spoonful) since they are unverified, sharing is caring and hopefully leads to more awareness of pay discrimination issues.  

So-called "returnships" — programs aimed at encouraging people who have left the workplace to care for children or family members to return to work — are all the rage, with top firms rethinking their hiring processes as they try and get more women into the c-suite. Goldman Sachs launched one of the pioneering returnship initiatives back in 2008; now, there are more than 50 similar programs in the U.S. Read the story on Boss Betty.

The continent with the most female board representation is Africa — one out of four directors across the (very) vast region is a woman, according to McKinsey. Europe clocks in second for female board representation with 23 percent and "global laggard Latin America" has an absolutely pitiful 7 percent. The report does not cite North America as a whole but says that in the U.S., 22 percent of directors are female. Worldwide, women hold 17 percent of directorships. It's important to note, however (as this article does), that several African nations have absolutely terrible records when it comes to gender equality.
NEWS JUST FOR YOU...
IN REAL ESTATE...WeWork just appointed four more men to their c-suite. What is wrong with them? Seriously, it is ASTOUNDING. Despite prior pushback over their all-male nearly all-white board, they went ahead and appointed another white dude director earlier this month and now this? Now we know for absolute 1,000-percent sure that any previous talk of tackling their issues with gender diversity was total utter BS. Meanwhile, they cut 20 percent of their workforce...READ ALL

AND ELSEWHERE IN BIG BUSINESS... 
IN ADVERTISING & MEDIA...Thousands of ad agency workers are anonymously sharing their salaries in a spreadsheet alongside information on their gender, race and sexual orientation...CBS has settled Emmy-winning investigative reporter Michele Gillen’s gender bias suit...Energy BBDO CEO Tonise Paul has stepped down and will assume the role of chair. Paul was "one of the longest-tenured female CEOs in the agency industry"...NBC News announced that award-winning investigative reporter Gretchen Morgenson is heading to the network as a senior financial investigative reporter...IBM CMO Jacqueline Woods is heading to Nielson to lead marketing for its Global Connect division...READ ALL

IN FINANCE...The daily grind of being the only woman in senior-level meetings, enduring endless interruptions from male colleagues and having few female role models is driving women off the trading floor...Further to that point, this headline says it all: "Blah, Blah, Blah. Wealth Managers Talk a Big Game – But Are Miserable at Recruiting Women as Advisors." On average, female advisors earn just under 59 percent of what male advisors make...PIMCO was in court this past week to defend itself in a gender and race discrimination suit that claims the financial services firm operates like a "fraternity in a perversely literal sense"...GE’s new CFO will be Carolina Dybeck Happe, who currently holds that title at global shipping giant Maersk...Investment firm Franklin Templeton appointed Jennifer Johnson as its new chief executive...The Carlyle Group’s Jill Wight joined Morgan Stanley Capital Partners as a managing director...READ ALL

IN LAW...A partner at a New York personal injury law firm wants to dissolve the practice because of his partner’s alleged harassment of — and affairs with — work secretaries...Goodwin just announced an expanded paid parental leave policy...Intel announced that it will screen all law firms it retains to make sure that they meet the tech company’s criteria for representation of women and minorities among equity partners...A former partner at the now-defunct LeClairRyan who sued the firm for gender discrimination years ago will be allowed to try to collect an almost $1 million arbitration award...Stanford tops the Princeton Review’s ranking of law schools with the most resources for women...“Walking Out the Door,” a new report from the American Bar Association and ALM Intelligence, looks into why senior women in law are much more likely than men to leave the industry...Anne Hoge of WhatsApp joined Robinhood as chief legal officer...READ ALL

 IN MANUFACTURING & RETAIL...Stop the pedals! SoulCycle CEO Melanie Whelan has resigned, effective immediately, and nobody knows why...SoftBank-backed dog-walking startup Wag is losing its CEO. Hilary Schneider is leaving the company, which has been having quite a ruff time, to be the CEO and president of photography site Shutterfly...Cosmetic company Coty is buying a 51-percent stake in Kylie Jenner’s skin care and beauty line for $600 million...Canceled! The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is no more, following terrible ratings in 2018 and pressure on parent company L Brands because of its CEO’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein...Head scratcher du jour: Marie Kondo is now selling products to clutter your home...Daniella Vitale, CEO of dearly departed department chain Barneys New York, has got a brand new gig at Tiffany & Co. (now owned by LVMH)...Nike appointed an African-American woman to its board for the first time. Thasunda Duckett is the CEO of Chase Consumer Banking...Retail veteran Kathryn McLay has been promoted to president and CEO of Sam’s Club...Detroit-based luxury goods retailer Shinola appointed its first female CEO, Shannon Washburn...READ ALL

IN TECH & ENGINEERING...Airbnb COO Belinda Johnson is set to leave the company in March. She will join the board of the company, which is planning a 2020 IPO...Guild Education, led by co-founder and CEO Rachel Carlson, joined the very small group of women-led companies to hit the $1 billion valuation mark...Google has turned to a consultancy known for union-busting efforts for help as activist employees continue to make demands and publicly accuse the company of retaliation...And in more Google news, after four staffers were fired Monday for “for clear and repeated violations of our data security policies,” employees rallied to their defense...Margrethe Vestager has developed a reputation as the world’s toughest tech watchdog. Her role as head of the European Commission’s antitrust division just achieved expanded powers...Looking for that cold, hard VC money that’s so much harder for women to score? The NYT has a guide for female entrepreneurs looking to raise financing...Amazon veteran Pawan Uppuluri is joining Glossier as chief technology officer...READ ALL

Please share your story ideas, feedback, thoughts — anything! — with us via info@bossbetty.com. If this email was forwarded to you, sign up for your own newsletter now


HAVE A VERY HAPPY AND THANKFUL THANKSGIVING! 
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