A new lawsuit filed by 14 women alleges Nike executives would get “sloppy drunk” and “prey on” female subordinates at the company’s world headquarters in Oregon.
The gender discrimination case, which was unsealed late last month, claims the brand promoted a “boys club” atmosphere at their offices in the city of Beaverton. That atmosphere allegedly included male executives making sexual advances on women who worked at the company, as well as delivering suggestive comments about their appearance and referencing sex during work-time conversations.
According to the civil complaint first filed in 2018 in US District Court in Oregon, women reported being invited to “work dinners” by high-ranking men because those executives “had hopes of sleeping with them.” Some execs would get drunk and “put their arms around” female employees at these events.
One woman who worked at the company claimed she was told by male co-workers to “dress sexier” and “show some skin” while on the job. And in one especially egregious instance, a woman reported finding a male executive receiving oral sex from a female subordinate in the campus gym.
WTF?!
The suit came about following the circulation of anonymous surveys filled out by women at the company earlier that year. Per Insider, those surveys tell a jaw-dropping story about the alleged activities that went on behind closed doors at Nike. In one survey response, a woman write:
“ a giant men’s sports team, where favoritism prevails and females couldn’t possibly play in the sandbox.”
Others report various concerning instances of gender discrimination and sexual harassment. One anonymous responder wrote how she was told this by a male executive:
“Maybe if you dressed nicer I would be on time. Take that baggy jacket off and show some skin.”
Another female employee slammed human resources, saying how she didn’t believe they would address her concerns:
“ and HR at this company are a joke.”
And yet another, who was also allegedly told by her boss to “show skin,” responded that the company’s toxic culture was awful to women trying to forge careers with the sportswear giant:
“Females at this company have felt very little power to change a culture and environment that has been and continues to be disrespectful to women. Kept it to myself because of who is at the company.”
Ugh…
Like we noted (above), this lawsuit was first filed back in 2018 after these anonymous surveys were rolled out to female employees. Dozens of employee responses were collected, though just 10 made it into court records. Nike had previously requested the court keep these survey contents sealed. However, a judge denied that request late last month.
As noted by the New York Post, days after receiving the surveys back in 2018, then-CEO Mark Parker — who is the company’s current executive chairman — announced a management reshuffle. At least 11 executives left the company. Parker shared a company-wide email on the restructuring at the time, too:
“Over the past few weeks, we’ve become aware of reports occurring within our organization that do not reflect our core values of inclusivity, respect and empowerment.”
Since 2018, the company has boasted about how the amount of women in leadership roles as vice presidents there has risen from 36% to 43%. That’s good to hear. Still, these allegations are shocking and extremely unfortunate, to say the absolute least. Think Nike is still running a so-called “boys club” only a few short years later? We hesitate to believe company culture has seen a total shift since then…
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