Bro Culture in the Workplace
Women presently represent 50% of the workforce. Yet in spite of this, top positions in most companies tend to be dominated by men. And when a woman does hold a C-level position, she’s seen as a novelty, and is often trotted out and put on display in the name of “diversity.” Think Sheryl Sandberg, Meg Whitman, or Carly Fiorina. But for every story of a successful career woman, there are innumerable stories of women being held back and stymied by the culture that is in charge.
At a Google shareholder meeting a few years ago, one shareholder addressed a question to "the lady CFO." The men in attendance laughed nervously and attempted to brush this off and move on. A bit later, another shareholder, who happened to be a woman, stood up and admonished the man who had characterized Ms. Porat as the “lady CFO.” She rightly pointed out that she was not the “lady” CFO, but simply the CFO.
I wish I could say that these stories were few and far between, but the reality is that they are all too common. I wish I could say that this phenomenon was limited to Silicon Valley and Wall Street, but it exists in every industry.
Recently, sporting goods giant Nike was in the news for it’s discrimination and harassment of its women employees. The Nike story is beyond egregious, and the CEO is squarely to blame. At best, he was asleep at the wheel. At worst, he ignored and enabled this horrid behavior from his lieutenants. And if there was ever a story that demonstrated that HR is not your friend, this is one. HR exists to protect the company, and that’s it. They aren’t there for you.
Why does this continue to happen? Because far too often, (in the US, anyway), “leaders” are motivated primarily by quarterly profits. So, if these Bros are making or exceeding their numbers, their bad behavior is allowed to slide. The harassment is a symptom. The disease is poor or nonexistent leadership, and the system by which these people get into positions of leadership in which they can wield power. The CEOs own it, but their fraternity bro managers push it.
Hopefully, the bad press and damage to the Nike brand will affect a real change at the company. Some of the high-profile offenders have left the company. But have they learned anything? Or will they just go somewhere else and pull the same sort of stuff? Perhaps too, Nike will realize that women, particularly women over 40, are a huge consumer demographic. And they don’t want athletic wear that looks like lingerie. They want comfortable, functional, quality gear. You know, just like men.
Maybe people will stop harassing women. It's certainly getting harder to get away with it. That is good. It will be help ease the symptoms and make life better for women all around. But we can do even better than that. And that begins at the top, with REAL leadership not this fake stuff that is far too prevalent.