Image courtesy of AngelaBambin
Company Culture
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Fortune has released its annual list of the 100 best companies to work for and Hilton (3.2 stars) , Ultimate Software (4.8 stars) , Wegmans Food Markets (3.5 stars) , Cisco (3.7 stars) , and Workday (3.9 stars) nabbed the top five spots. Overall, finance and insurance dominate the list, while perks like tuition reimbursement and telecommuting are becoming the norm. Fortune
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The Greyhound Lines (1.9 stars) bus company will no longer allow Customs and Border Patrol agents to conduct immigration checks on its buses, terminals, or company offices without a warrant. Greyhound’s announcement comes only a week after an internal CBP memo stated that agents cannot board private buses for searches without consent. The company had previously maintained that it believed federal law required it to comply with CBP requests to board its buses, even without warrants. Taking the bus just got a lot safer. Vox
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Leslie Wexner will step down as CEO of Victoria’s Secret (3.0 stars) parent company L Brands (3.4 stars) . In recent weeks and months, Wexner had come under scrutiny regarding his treatment of women and his close ties to Jeffrey Epstein. NY Times
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Amazon (3.0 stars) CEO Jeff Bezos drew praise after his announcement last week that he will donate $10 billion toward fighting climate change as part of the Bezos Earth Fund. While Bezos’s $10 billion commitment is unprecedented in climate philanthropy, skeptics aren’t totally convinced about the efficacy of the donation given how few details are known about it. Like its timeframe, for example. Any way you slice it, $10 billion is a huge sum that can affect incredible change, but there’s a big difference between $10 billion given out within a year and $10 billion doled out over 20 years. The nature of the Bezos Earth Fund is also unclear—is it part of Bezos’s personal holding company, a private foundation, or a donor-advised fund? Critics of Bezos also point out that his efforts would be better spent improving Amazon’s carbon footprint and also maybe not firing Amazon employees who dare to protest the company’s environmental practices. Recode
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While we’re talking about climate and sustainability, a recent letter from Glossier CEO Emily Weiss announced that the cosmetics company will discontinue its Glitter Gelée product due to the negative impacts of glitter , which is mostly composed of microplastics, on the environment. The company will halt sales of the product March 2. Glossier
Quick Hits
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After Elizabeth Warren criticized fellow Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg for his use of non-disclosure agreements, Bloomberg has announced that his company will release three of the women who have signed NDA’s regarding his offensive comments. Of course, many more accusations against Bloomberg remain, and its unknown just how many NDA’s he or his company have been involved with, but Warren brought the insidious use of NDA’s to light. Turns out, naming and shaming does work. VICE
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The United States Soccer Federation and the women’s national team continue to clash over the women's fight for equal pay. Based on calculations that consider performance, schedules, and match results, the women’s national team is seeking $67 million in backpay and damages from the federation. Meanwhile, the federation is requesting the judge dismiss the case altogether. NY Times
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A disturbing trend of doctors and doctors-in-training performing pelvic exams without consent while patients are unconscious is brought to light in this piece by Emma Goldberg. In most states, doctors are not required to obtain explicit consent to perform the procedure, which is sometimes performed because it is deemed medically necessary, but other times the exam is solely performed for the educational benefit of trainees. NY Times
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Approximately 6.5 million women in the U.S. suffer from a painful and little-understood disease called endometriosis. Awareness has grown in recent years, yet government funding to study the disease has dropped from $10 million four years ago to $6 million—that’s less than a dollar allocated to each patient. This piece by Rebecca Grant analyzes the myriad reasons why. Cosmopolitan
Black History/Black Present
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How much do you know about Jane Bolin? Not enough, most likely. This piece by Breanna Edwards for Essence tells the life story of America’s first Black woman judge. She attended Wellesley College as one of two Black freshman in 1928, before becoming the first Black woman to earn a law degree from Yale University. In 1939, she was appointed as a judge of the Domestic Relations Court (now called Family Court) in New York City and broke down racial barriers like requiring child care agencies that receive federal funding to accept children of any race and ending the assigning of probation officer based upon race or religion. Essence
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OneUnited, the nation’s largest black-owned bank, unveiled a new debit card design featuring Harriet Tubman in celebration of Black History Month. However, the design drew some criticism, with some social media users taking issue with Tubman’s crossed arms in the design which appeared to emulate the “Wakanda Forever” salute from Black Panther while others took issue with the concept of putting Tubman, who as a former slave suffered exploitation at the hands of the American capitalistic system, on a VISA design at all. NY Times
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In March, TIME magazine’s equality issue will hit the newsstands. The issue will feature pieces from John Lewis, Janet Mock, and Gabrielle and Dwayne Wade, along with other writers on a range of topics relevant to the Black experience and the state of racism in 2020. TIME
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The NAACP’s annual Image Awards honor outstanding Black performances in art, music, film, and literature. This year, Lizzo was named entertainer of the year, “Just Mercy” won outstanding motion picture, and Lupita Nyong’o won outstanding actress in a motion picture. The full list of nominees and winners in all categories can be found on the Image Awards website . CNN
Around the World
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Germany: Nine people were killed last week after a right-wing terrorist opened fire in the town of Hanau. The gunman, now deceased, appeared to target Hanau’s Middle Eastern immigrant population, marking Germany’s third deadly far-right attack since the summer—an antisemitic attack at a synogogue in October left two dead and June saw the slaying of Walter Lübcke, a politician who supported the welcoming of immigrants. TIME
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India: Women in India’s military will now be eligible for the same promotions, ranks, benefits and pensions as their male counterparts after last week’s Supreme Court ruling. Currently, women are only permitted to serve 10-14 years in the military. CNN
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Brazil: Transgender dancer Camila Prins performed at Sao Paulo’s Carnival Parade as “godmother” of the Colorado do Brás samba school’s drum section, an honor celebrities, models, and dancers fight over. It’s an important yet challenging role that requires the godmother to dance fervidly while judges assess the school. This was Prins’ second time performing as godmother at the Sao Paulo parade—the first time in 2018 she faced a chilly reception, but slowly won the crowd over with her dancing. Her performance is an act of bravery and defiance in a country dominated by a right-wing administration and in a city where 21 of the 124 trans people killed in Brazil were murdered. The Washington Post
