Battle Tactics for Your Sexist Workplace

Liz Plank is an award-winning journalist and the author of the new book *For the Love of Men. *She talks to Jeannie Yandel about why we need to have more conversations about the patriarchy that include men’s voices.

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Even in the Before Times, the restaurant industry had problems. Seventy percent of its women and femme employees said they'd experienced sexual harassment on the job. The EEOC took in more harassment complaints from restaurant workers than any other workplace. And then there's the federal minimum wage for tipped workers - a whopping $2.13 per hour. Then Covid hit. Jeannie and Eula talk with a longtime server in Illinois about how her job changed with the pandemic, and how waiting tables during Covid has changed her.

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Even before the conservatorship, Britney Spears had to figure out how to navigate a stunningly sexist workplace. The kind of workplace where it was considered charming for a fully adult Ed McMahon to compliment your "pretty eyes" and ask if you have a boyfriend...when you're ten years old...and on national television.

Jeannie and Eula have a heart-to-heart about the public narrative around Britney Spears, and how we all had a hand in creating her toxic, sexist workplace - one that only got worse once she became a mom. And they talk about how to do better from here on out.

The documentary we discuss in this episode is Framing Britney Spears, available on Hulu. There's now a second documentary on Hulu too. It's called Controlling Britney Spears. We highly recommend you start with Framing Britney Spears.

Other stuff from this episode:

Mystery Show Episode 2: Britney

Britney's Astrological Birth Chart

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"Carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white guy". This was a tactic we heard in our Season 1 episode on Imposter Syndrome. If you haven't yet, give this episode a listen. It's our most downloaded episode, and the topic we are asked to speak the most about. For a while, it's felt as though lots of us couldn't get enough tactics to battle imposter syndrome within ourselves.

Then, our friends and all-around geniuses Jodi-Ann Burey and Ruchika Tulshyan co-wrote Stop Telling Women They Have imposter Syndrome, for the Harvard Business Review, followed by End Imposter Syndrome In Your Workplace (chock-full of tactics, btw!). And it got us thinking: Are we still cool with what we said about imposter syndrome in that old episode? That it is truly an individual issue we must each overcome, rather than a red flag about bigger, systemic biases and obstacles?

So we asked Jodi-Ann to listen to that old episode, poke holes in it, and tell us why she thinks imposter syndrome is bulls**t. Which is exactly what she did - in a delightful, hilarious, thought-provoking way.

GUEST: Jodi-Ann Burey is a disruptor, thinker, and writer - and her TEDx Seattle Talk on authenticity at work has been viewed more than a million times. Find her on instagram @jodiannburey. Her podcast is called Black Cancer.

The #metoo era has helped unleash perspectives that have long been overlooked. This has left a lot of men feeling confused about how to act around their women colleagues. Jeannie Yandel and Eula Scott Bynoe explore allyship and share tactics men can use to help create a more inclusive workplace.

Guests: Peter Qualliotine and Ruchika Tulshyan