8 terrible stories of companies getting sexism awareness very, very wrong

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager .
Recently we talked about workplaces holding egregiously clueless “celebrations” for various awareness days/months. Not surprisingly, a ton of the stories shared were about sexism. Here are eight stories of companies getting sexism awareness events remarkably wrong. (Note: some of the stories shared were so offensive that it’s hard to laugh at them, so these aren’t even the worst of the worst.)
1. Let men speak
We had a women’s month event at my last job called “it’s women’s month … time to let the men speak.” It was exactly as tone-deaf as you think it would be. It featured men with their chairs arranged in a circle talking to each other about how to be good allies. Every other chair in the room encircled their circle in the most bizzaro meeting layout ever. By the end of the event all women had left the room out of anger and it was only men remaining.
2. The book
At my old law firm (now defunct) the women’s resource group asked people for advice they could share in a book. When we got the “book,” it was covered in pink bows and flowers. On the “could you get more gender essentialist than this crap” front, one of my colleagues said it looked like the pamphlet her doctor gave her when she got her first period.
3. The honorees
At my (very large, recognizable) tech company last year, they honored four people for International Women’s Day, and three of them were men.
4. The slideshow
My last company celebrated International Women’s Day by inviting all the women to gather at noon to take a picture. The celebration for AAPI month was showing a slideshow of 15 pictures of Asian-American celebrities on screens around the office (six were of Lucy Liu). At least they had the spirit?
5. The missed point
In honor of women’s day, the DEI lead authored an article on how every successful man has a successful woman behind them and how amazing it is that women give birth, wear high heels and be beautiful, AND work…
6. The roses
Small company, Valentine’s Day. IT men bought lotion sets and fake roses to give to all the IT women and came into the department in a kinda parade to present to each woman.
(Okay, this wasn’t a sexism awareness event, but it’s still pretty wild.)
7. The repeated misses
We had a women’s history month event and it was unbelievably tone-deaf. Here is an excerpt from the actual email:
“The Planning Committee has organized a wonderful event in recognition of Women’s History Month, which will focus on the theme ‘Recognizing Women through the Voices of Men.’ In order to celebrate women, a panel of distinguished men will speak about the important women in their lives that have served as an influential figure to them.
Not only is it women through the voices of men (bwahahahaha!), but also, men who would definitely be talking about their moms or grandmas right! Ultimately, it was cancelled, probably due to feedback. Just amazing. It seems fake, but I have receipts.
Also each heritage/history month, posters would be display, which somehow were always insensitive. For Pride, the poster was very … sensual with people dressed … like the Village People. For Caribbean heritage month, the poster was a white family walking along a beach with a cruise ship in the background with Caribbean men playing steel drums. WHO APPROVED THESE?
Twice other offensive ideas were successfully shut down. One was senior leadership using wheelchairs all day for Disabilities Awareness Month. Another was for Pride, in which coworkers would film themselves saying nice things about their gay colleagues (potentially outing people) and draw a picture honoring them. The pictures would then be put together, in what people began calling the Quilt of the Gays … just wow!!
8. The cake
My best friend was asked to bring a cake to work for international women’s day. She brought a cake with a large chunk already cut out of it, and a note stuck on it about the pay gap. She is my hero.
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