Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Ernst & Young Held Training For Female Executives On How To Dress And Behave More Nicely Around Their Male Co-Workers

Ernst & Young Held Training For Female Executives On How To Dress And Behave More Nicely Around Their Male Co-Workers
Luis Alvarez / Getty Images

Ernst & Young is one of the largest and most prestigious accounting firms currently in operation.

It's also found itself in the middle of a scandal so ridiculous and laughable that all that prestige may not be enough to save their rep.


Let's just say this is a human resources and public relations nightmare. And it was completely avoidable.

It's common for large corporations to offer yearly training seminars to their executives. It's common for those training sessions to briefly cover things like communication styles and proper office attire for execs.

It's far less common—and in no way acceptable—for that training to include incredibly sexist tips geared towards women. Or for those tips to be so offensively out of touch that they seem like they were pulled from a 1940's magazine geared towards being a submissive housewife.

The higher ups at Ernst & Young decided to devote an entire 2018 training session to "advising" their female executives on how to properly dress, act and speak around their male counterparts.

Giphy

Yeah, the tips from this "female empowerment" training were absolutely as bad as you think. We couldn't pick our favorite offensive nuggets, so we put together a "fun" little highlights reel.

Oh, and lest you think this was a brief section of training that just missed the mark, we need to explain exactly how extensive and purposeful this was. These highlights come from a FIFTY FIVE PAGE BOOKLET given to the female executives for a seminar covering specifically this material.

That seminar, called Power, Presence, Purpose took the 30-ish attendees a day and a half to complete.

Prepare to be blown away, but not in a good way.

Brace to be blown away by the bull.

- Women's brains absorb information like pancakes absorb syrup, so it's harder for them to focus. Men are better at focusing because their brains work more like waffles and they can put information into little squares.

- "Don't flaunt your body - sexuality scrambles the mind..."

- The most important thing women can do is signal fitness and wellness

- Avoid being a "bottle blond"

- Don't speak to men face-to-face as men find that threatening

- Women's brains are about 10% smaller than men's

- The only way to succeed is to "work around" the men

- Women should avoid having a high-pitched voice

- Women often ramble and miss the point while speaking

Horrified yet?

Well it's about to get worse.

We mentioned this particular training session happened in 2018, but it's important to offer a frame of reference as to why.

2018 was the height of the "Me Too" movement—focused on acknowledging ongoing sexual harassment and assaults faced by many women. A large part of the cultural moment centered around sexist, misogynist and downright rapey ideas and behaviors allowed in the work place.

Ernst & Young itself was caught up in the middle of the scandal thanks to the companies handling (or non-handlng) of a sexual assault between executives. The incident happened in 2015 at a bar in New York.

Several of the firm partners were present at the bar when John Martinkat assaulted fellow partner Jessica Casucci—doing so visibly in front of at least two other partners. After learning that this wasn't the first time something like this had happened, Jessica filed a complaint with the company.

The company opted to not fire Mr. Martinkat. Instead, it was Ms. Casucci who, essentially, had to start over and "rebuild her entire book of business from scratch" in order to avoid working with Mr. Martinkat on future projects.

Ernst & Young also required Ms. Casucci to speak to an outside attorney that they hired and would not offer her any promise of employment or reputation protection over the incident.

The company did not take any action against Mr. Martinkat until Jessica Casucci went public with her experience. Only then, under public pressure, did they fire him.

So with all of that going on, the company thought it was a good idea to present a seminar to, essentially, treat women in the workplace as a problem in need of fixing.

A disgusted participant anonymously released the documentation to the media.

Ernst & Young initially refused to comment outside of saying that the seminar was put together by an outside person and is no longer offered in exactly this way.

Yeah, that sounds like owning your mistakes, making a sincere apology and finding a way to avoid repeating the behavior. Maybe someone has a seminar that can teach Ernst & Young how.

On Tuesday, after considerable backlash, Ernst & Young admitted they should probably not have offered the seminar.

In a statement sent to The Huffington Postthey said:

"There is no question that elements of the program included offensive content that is inconsistent with our core beliefs."

Better, but maybe go with "no part of this was OK" in the next version.

Pulitzer prize winning journalist Ronan Farrow's book, Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, available here, tells the story of his work to uncover the long running abuse by powerful men like Harvey Weinstein that helped launch the #MeToo movement.

******

Have you listened to the first season of George Takei's podcast, 'Oh Myyy Pod!'?

In season one we explored the racially charged videos that have taken the internet by storm.

We're hard at work on season two so be sure to subscribe here so you don't miss it when it goes live.

Here's one of our favorite episodes from season one. Enjoy!

More from Trending

Kim Kardashian
Dia Dipasupil/FilmMagic

Kim Kardashian Slammed After Participating In Tone-Deaf Tesla Photoshoot For Magazine

Kim Kardashian is in hot water online after appearing in a controversial photo shoot for the Tesla Cybertruck amid Elon Musk's unconstitutional takeover of key functions of the U.S. government.

There has perhaps never been a poorer reading of the room. Despite what most Republicans appear to think (Kardashian included it would seem), the Tesla CEO is broadly disliked by the majority of Americans according to recent polling.

Keep ReadingShow less
Dropkick Murphys in concert
Debbie Hickey/Getty Images

Dropkick Murphys Singer Rips Trump And Musk's 'Cult' Followers In Epic Rant In Boston

If you're a Dropkick Murphys fan wearing MAGA apparel and you're spotted by frontman Ken Casey at one of their shows, it won't end well for you.

The pro-union, anti-Trump punk band is notorious for singling out MAGA fans attending their shows and calling them out for being devotees of Republican President Donald Trump.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump and Navajo code talkers
Brendan Simalowski/AFP via Getty Images

Trump Blasted After Military Scrubs WWII Navajo Code Talkers From Websites Due To 'DEI'

The Department of Defense and the U.S. Army have been widely criticized after they removed materials from their websites about the World War II Navajo Code Talkers, who from 1942 to 1945 played a crucial role in every major Marine Corps operation in the Pacific, using their unbreakable code to secure communications.

News outlets found that at least 10 articles about the Code Talkers had vanished from the U.S. Army and Department of Defense websites as of Monday. The Defense Department’s URLs had been modified to include the letters "DEI," indicating they may have been removed following President Trump’s executive order dismantling federal diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Keep ReadingShow less
Jasmine Mooney
Global News

Canadian 'American Pie' Star Speaks Out After She Was Detained By ICE For 12 Days

Canadian actor and businesswoman Jasmine Mooney returned to Vancouver on March 15 after she was detained and transferred three times to different detention centers for roughly two weeks by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Mooney, who is known for American Pie Presents: The Book of Love and iZombie was detained on March 3 after she tried to reapply for a work visa at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego where her lawyer was.

Keep ReadingShow less
Dr. Timothy Snyder; Marjorie Taylor Greene
@edkrassen/X

MTG Gets Schooled By Holocaust Historian After Unfounded Claim About 'Nazis In Ukraine' In Resurfaced Clip

A resurfaced video from 2024 reminded social media users of the time Yale historian and best-selling author Dr. Timothy Snyder gave Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene a blunt fact-check after she touted the rise of "Nazis in Ukraine" during a recent congressional hearing.

The video is more relevant than ever following a contentious White House meeting last month between President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Vice President J.D. Vance. The meeting turned heated when Vance berated Zelenskyy, leading the Ukrainian president to leave without signing an agreement for U.S. security guarantees in exchange for access to Ukrainian rare earth minerals.

Keep ReadingShow less