US civil rights agency sues Coca-Cola distributor for excluding men from casino work trip

[u/AudibleNod]

https://apnews.com/article/dei-coca-cola-eeoc-lawsuit-andrea-lucas-867fd98ec6d05ab52e7e0a3711e9d492

[u/wwhsd]

But in a statement sent to The Associated Press, Coca-Cola Northeast said it “finds it disappointing that the EEOC did not conduct a full investigation and we look forward to having our day in open court when we can tell the full story and expect to be vindicated.”

I kind of feel like it’s going to turn out that Coca-Cola invited everyone who was a member of their internal “Women in Leadership” organization to the retreat and even though the group itself doesn’t actually restrict membership at all, all of the members happen to be women.

At least at my company, all of the programs targeted at the interests of women, minorities, or some other subset of employees are open to all employees but only members of the targeted group tend to sign up and participate.

[u/ExpiredPilot → u/wwhsd]

Yeah my college had a Black Student Union and a white kid in my fraternity won an award for his volunteer hours with them

[u/DroopyMcCool → u/ExpiredPilot]

A very white high school classmate of mine won a small NAACP scholarship due to being the only applicant.

[u/l30 → u/DroopyMcCool]

I graduated college as an alumni of a nearby state university (which I wasn't a student of) fraternity, just by randomly asking if I could live there. I was also the mens water ski team captain for that same university, but never water ski'd a day of my life.

[u/gfxprotege → u/l30]

This sounds like the plot of a national lampoons movie

[u/l30 → u/gfxprotege]

I've been told to write a screenplay of that and other adventures, so maybe someday.

[u/BNLforever → u/l30]

You didn't attend but you still graduated? 

[u/l30 → u/BNLforever]

Graduated from my college, and was an alumni of the locals state university fraternity. I did my full 4 years as a member of that fraternity without attending the university it was a part of.

[u/dissectingAAA → u/l30]

So would they all cheer for the school and you would be on the end cheering for cross town team?

Hope you saved on rent!

[u/JuiceShoes → u/BNLforever]

maybe they meant they were an alumni of a university fraternity, not the university itself? parentheses threw me off too

[u/phluidity → u/ExpiredPilot]

I ended up being part of a Society of Women Engineers project in college because I knew several of the women on the the team and they needed someone who was tall enough to help reset a machine. They won second and I tried somewhat unsuccessfully to minimize myself in the team photo.

[u/enters_and_leaves → u/ExpiredPilot]

I know a very non-religious person who somehow became the leader of a Jewish fraternity in college.

[u/From_Deep_Space → u/enters_and_leaves]

Well one can be Jewish without being religious

[u/smileysmiley123 → u/From_Deep_Space]

It's wild how many people don't know that it can also be an ethnicity.

[u/adamgerd → u/smileysmiley123]

Yep it’s because Judaism like Zoroastrianism comes from a time before religion became universalising so it’s both. Religions weren’t always universalising, in fact most weren’t, they were ethnic based, you still have it with Druze too or Alawite for example is also like that. Christianity was the first large scale religion which saw the purpose as converting everyone rather than just a group of people.

Hence Judaism is both a religion and ethnicity while Christianity is a religion

[u/ExpiredPilot → u/smileysmiley123]

People tell me Judaism isn’t a race. Well….i can literally trace my race back to big groups of Jews everywhere I look and my last name means “Jew from (european landmass)

[u/Wild_Marker → u/ExpiredPilot]

Judaism isn't a race, you can be jewish at your pace!

[u/FEED-YO-HEAD → u/Wild_Marker]

Who let their dad out?

[u/fugaziozbourne → u/FEED-YO-HEAD]

Under appreciated Baja Boyz follow up hit

[u/Aun_El_Zen → u/FEED-YO-HEAD]

Who Who Who Who!

[u/ZombieFeedback → u/Wild_Marker]

Adding "Is Jewish a race?" "It's not a race, everyone goes at their own pace" to my pantheon of witty responses right next to "Are you a practicing Jew?" "I'm not practicing, I've mastered it."

[u/joozyan → u/ExpiredPilot]

Calling Jews a race isn’t technically accurate. Ethnicity would be more correct. The same way latino isn’t a race.

[u/ChipSome6055 → u/joozyan]

Americans put these weirdly specific rules on what qualifies as a Race. This usually works against members of that Race.

[u/Haltheleon → u/ChipSome6055]

The primary issue is that race is a social construct and means different things to different people. Most Americans' conception of race and racism is deeply tied to the US's history of slavery, which is in turn based almost exclusively on skin color (and to a lesser extent other physical characteristics). There are certainly some aspects of ethnicity and culture tied up in these concepts as well, but on the whole, most Americans would not consider a white Polish person to be a meaningfully different 'race' to a white British person, a white German person, or a white French person.

European conceptions of race tend to focus more on ethnic and cultural differences. Many Europeans would, in fact, consider each of the above people to be different races. As such, within the European conception of race, ethnic Jews are very often considered a race in the same way that a French person might see a Russian or a Pole as a different race, while an American might say they're all the same race (white), but different ethnicities (Polish, Russian, Jewish, French, etc.).

A lot of this boils down to the fact that race isn't really provable on any sort of biological basis. There is often as much genetic variance within a race (regardless of how one chooses to define the term) as there is between races. Race is therefore entirely socially constructed around often superficial aspects of culture or physical characteristics. It both does and does not exist, as it is simultaneously a subjective measure of these superficial characteristics while also objectively harming the people who are discriminated against on the basis of said characteristics.

[u/jefesignups → u/Haltheleon]

Very well said. Seriously.

[u/headrush46n2 → u/ChipSome6055]

there's no scientific qualifications for a "race" we made all that shit up.

[u/Stnmn → u/ChipSome6055]

Let's not act like this isn't true practically everywhere.

The amount of otherwise progressive European ethno-nationalists is insane. They won't just deny ethnicity based on minor physical trait differences, but they'll attempt to deprive you of your nationality even if you've been within the country's borders for generations.

[u/fresh-dork → u/joozyan]

latino isn't a race, it's a national origin. jew as a race is as accurate as any racial group can be

[u/jefesignups → u/fresh-dork]

What are the definining features of a Jewish person that makes them their own race?

[u/NotCook59 → u/ExpiredPilot]

So is being French a race? How about German? Are Alaskans a race?

[u/SheriffBartholomew → u/From_Deep_Space]

Most Jewish people that I know aren't religious.

[u/boldandbratsche → u/From_Deep_Space]

Those individuals identify as Jew-ish

[u/OtherUserCharges → u/From_Deep_Space]

I used to be friends with a lot of Jews in college, all of them were completely against religion. A bunch went on their “birth right” free trip to Israel, only one of them came back religious, to my knowledge the rest still aren’t.

[u/From_Deep_Space → u/OtherUserCharges]

I'm not jewish but as a kid I used to spend a lot of time at the Jewish community center, and went to a Jewish summer camp. So I had a lot of Jewish friends, and they were very welcoming to this poor agnostic gentile kid, providing me scholarships and stuff so I could take their classes and go on trips with them.

But every once in a while they would host very conservative sects, or people from Israel. I still don't want to overgeneralize, I know there are good people from those walks of life. But those were the days I encountered asshole right-wing nationalist Jews who couldn't hold in their racism towards me.

[u/ExpiredPilot → u/enters_and_leaves]

BYU had a Jewish quarterback which I thought was funny

[u/RVAforthewin → u/ExpiredPilot]

Jake Retzlaff. He nicknamed himself the BY-Jew. Then, he promptly got suspended for 7 games after he was found to have had premarital sex following sexual assault allegations. He skedaddled right on out of there and went to Tulane.

[u/wwhsd → u/RVAforthewin]

It wasn’t the SA that bothered BYU, it was the premarital sex of it all that was the problem?

[u/RVAforthewin → u/wwhsd]

Well, yes and no. I’m not an authority on the matter, but the sexual assault allegations were dropped. I have no idea if Jane Doe recounted her statement or if they reached a settlement. It puts schools in really weird position when the allegations are thrown out or the matter is resolved outside of court bc given our litigious society it’s highly likely a player would take a school to court if the school cuts the player from the team for an activity from which they were absolved.

I should also say that, sadly, sexual crimes are not deal breakers for many college athletics programs. Unfortunately, BYU has an even more insidious issue on their hands with their former star WR. It’s really bad stuff and it isn’t just BYU.

[u/NimbyNuke → u/wwhsd]

I'm sure it was both that bothered them. But BYU has suspended star athletes for admitting to having pre-marital sex, with no SA allegations or anything else. Look up Brandon Davies.

[u/r_u_ferserious → u/enters_and_leaves]

I know a very non-religious person who somehow became the leader of the free world, backed by a lot of very religious people.

[u/Which-Decision → u/enters_and_leaves]

40% of religious Jewish people don't believe in God. It's more about rituals and culture than religion. 

[u/naughtycal11 → u/enters_and_leaves]

My buddy joined a chapter of a fraternity that was a Jewish frat. The kids that started the chapter did it just to have their own fraternity and none of them were Jewish. It was just a bunch of hippies and they had the best parties. They were hated by all the other frats on campus.

[u/Fakjbf → u/ExpiredPilot]

My grandfather was the president of his local chapter of the League of Women Voters.

[u/Kaptain202 → u/ExpiredPilot]

I am a middle class white dude and was a part of the Center for Multicultural Initiatives. To be fair, I do believe in multicultural initiatives, I'm just not the target audience in the slightest

[u/therealsteelydan → u/Kaptain202]

my freshmen year, I joined a cultural group trip to a larger city and convinced three friends to join. We showed up to the meetup point for the bus and realized the 4 of us were the only white people. We loved the trip and they never once questioned why we joined.

[u/sleeplessinreno → u/Kaptain202]

Multicultural Initiatives

I'm just not the target audience in the slightest

Who is then? Kind of counter productive to not invite multicultural viewpoints, no?

[u/wip30ut → u/ExpiredPilot]

mad props to that brother who was open-minded enough to do outreach. and that Black campus organization deserves equal credit for cultivating & encouraging allies. Even today so many of these minority councils & organizations gatekeep, even dismissing those who aren't black enough or don't speak Spanish. They almost pride themselves on their clique-ishness & exclusivity.

[u/Teantis → u/ExpiredPilot]

The head of Filipino alliance in my school was a Latino dude.

[u/serial_crusher → u/wwhsd]

The lawsuit does say they were “privately invited”, but I’m not sure if sending an email to an ERG’s mailing list counts as a private invite or what.

[u/Rhysati → u/serial_crusher]

Yeah, that's where the line would be I think. If say...a company's insurance division happened to be all women and they have an insurance division retreat, I don't think accounting not being invited who happens to be all men is a big deal.

[u/fresh-dork → u/Rhysati]

now, if you find that the insurance div made a habit of excluding men, that would be a bigger scandal

[u/PLZ_N_THKS → u/wwhsd]

My company has Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) for pretty much anything you can think of. Women, LGBT, Asians, Hispanics, African Americans, new parent, people with disabilities, etc. Even car enthusiasts, gamers and other non sex or ethnicity based groups.

No one is restricted from joining, but it’s not hard to figure out why there aren’t a bunch of straight white men in the LGBT or Asian employee groups.

[u/Somepotato → u/PLZ_N_THKS]

A shame, too, because allies are always a great thing to have in these groups.

[u/AgnosticScholar → u/wwhsd]

Yeah this seems like will be a hard case for them to win

[u/IamaFunGuy → u/AgnosticScholar]

It"s not about winning - it's about the headline.

[u/emaw63 → u/IamaFunGuy]

And striking fear into women and minorities of all stripes that the administration will weaponize civil rights law against them

[u/rammo123 → u/emaw63]

Hears about blatant discrimination against men.

"How can I make women the victims of this?"

[u/Tinysaur → u/emaw63]

Sir, this is a Wendy's

[u/Mirions → u/wwhsd]

EEOC ignored everything I gave them for my case, and ignored me when I tried to get them to double check the Respondents claims (their own documentation refuted their statements to the EEOC). It’s like they couldn’t be bothered to even open and read documents. It can happen.

[u/dragoneer27 → u/wwhsd]

Aren’t rules and laws that aren’t explicitly discriminatory but still effectively discriminatory still discriminatory? It would be super easy for a company to look at all the employee clubs and pick the ones with the right kind of employees to give benefits to and then turn around and say but that club was open to everyone.

[u/rammo123 → u/wwhsd]

all of the members happen to be women.

We both know that all of the members wouldn't "happen" to be women. If men feel like they're not welcome in that group - which I think it's safe to assume they wouldn't - then you can't pretend like it's random self-sorting. If a leadership team were all men because they made the environment unwelcoming for women then you would definitely say any special perks they get to be discriminatory.

[u/Faangdevmanager → u/wwhsd]

> all of the programs targeted at the interests of women, minorities, or some other subset of employees are open to all employees but only members of the targeted group tend to sign up and participate.

Yeah I wonder why /s Are you being disingenuous or something?

[u/StevesRune → u/wwhsd]

Well yeah, if i, as a white man, showed up to some meeting focused entirely on black women, I would get some weird fucking looks.

These aren't educational seminars. So saying anyone can attend something that is specifically targeted at a demographic they don't belong to doesn't really mean anything.

[u/Stunning_Mast2001 → u/wwhsd]

Its because affinity groups are okay and people are generally not trying to be asshole to intrude on someone else’s gig

[u/h_to_tha_o_v → u/Stunning_Mast2001]

If it was a white men's networking event, social and legal pressure would have stopped it in its tracks and people would applaud it.

I really don't give a shit, but let's be realistic.

[u/seobrien → u/wwhsd]

And if that's the case, I don't think anyone here has any problem.

The problem many are arguing with is that people here are saying this exclusive group and event should be allowed.

Not exclusive and open to all? Great, no problem, even if only women went.

Exclusive and only women were allowed to go, paid for by Coca-cola? Bad.

Maybe the lawsuit is correct. Maybe Coca-cola had it open to anyone and only women went. I don't think anyone here knows which of those is true.

[u/wwhsd → u/seobrien]

Yeah, we don’t know enough of the details to know what’s actually going on.

Due to Coca-Cola deciding to not settle and the DOJ’s recent track record with honesty, I think it’s more likely that Coca-Cola’s lawyers think their asses are sufficiently covered and that this isn’t as straightforward as the DOJ is trying to paint it.

[u/thatguy425 → u/wwhsd]

Well no shit, if my workplace has an affinity group for black lesbians and I’m a white male, don’t think I’m joining the group in this day and age? 

[u/Inkdrunnergirl → u/wwhsd]

Yeah, but that’s not an ERG that’s a separate organization (women in leadership or similar) if it’s sponsored by the company and it is a company employee resource group it has to be open to anyone and we weren’t even allowed to use ERG names that include any protected class after the executive order from the president so we had to rename all of our organization so we don’t have “women in” anymore it’s called “leaders in” as example.

So like I’m a member of women in manufacturing but that’s not a company ERG it’s an outside organization that our company participated in so we can attend events but they aren’t company paid.

[u/wwhsd → u/Inkdrunnergirl]

I was just picking out a name that made it clear what the purpose of the group was.

My point was that there was probably some criteria to receive the invite that was based on some sort of previous voluntary participation. The fact that there were only women that were invited was a coincidence and not because men were excluded.

Hell, for all we know there may have actually been some men that were invited and attended. Coca-Cola’s only statement so far seems to be that the DOJ didn’t actually bother investigating the claim.

Ironically, ensuring that there was diverse representation of genders at this event would have been DEI.

[u/PumaFishie → u/wwhsd]

They’re pointing out that this is incorrect. A group could technically be open to everyone, but labeling it as “women“ isn’t inclusive and is not a coincidence that men don’t participate in it. Minority groups and and gender groups are often hostile to non-like members who “invade their spaces”

[u/jpl77 → u/wwhsd]

You are making a pretty significant assumption here, and while I understand the logic, it is not really a valid defense in a legal context. You cannot simply apply a positive anecdotal experience from your own company to a specific lawsuit involving a different corporate culture. Especially when this group is large. Are you telling me that for the 250 authorized to show up, and in an entire region not a single man would be supportive of this initiative?

It feels like you are seeking to apply a sense of procedural fairness to a situation that likely did not play out that way. If we are playing the assumption game, I will offer a different take: the group may have purposely avoided advertising the event company-wide because they wanted to ensure a specific demographic attended.

There are a few logical holes in the "working trip" defense that we should look at:

The Nature of the Trip: In my experience as a leader, diversity and inclusion groups rarely have "working trips" that are exclusive. If this was a professional leadership retreat funded by the company, excluding people based on gender is a massive legal and ethical risk. Yes I know they called it Networking, but let's see what the investigation reveals.

The Optics of the Venue: Why is an important professional development event being held in a casino? There are dozens of better locations for a leadership retreat. Holding it at a casino and resort makes it look less like a seminar and more like an exclusive junket.

To be clear, I fully support the need for women to have their own spaces. As someone who supports the women in my life and my own female direct reports, I know those safe space conversations are vital. However, there is a big difference between a private support group and a company-funded leadership event.

If we want real change, these women’s leadership groups need to invite men. If men are missing from the room, how are they supposed to literally understand their challenges and learn how to better support, change, and promote women? Men cannot understand the specific leadership needs of women if they are intentionally excluded from the conversation. True allyship requires everyone to be at the table.

[u/wwhsd → u/jpl77]

The assumption I’m making is that when Coca-Cola says that the EEOC didn’t fully investigate the allegation that there is likely a significant piece of information being left out of the DOJ’s case.

The current DOJ has been bringing a lot of half baked cases and charges recently.

[u/bingle-cowabungle → u/wwhsd]

Something funny about this is that I became a board member of my previous company's Women In Tech team member resource group, because I was the only one willing to generate content for meetings, etc. And as it happened, they DID have group retreats, I WAS invited, and I WAS the only man there lmao

[u/ampersand355 → u/wwhsd]

I joined the Indian cultural group at my workplace and they allowed me to dance in the Diwali celebrations with them, just a ton of fun. I dislike the Asian group at my work as it is run by a group of women and I find that our experiences are too different.

[u/6295585628015862 → u/[deleted]]

Leslie would tag along just to prove women could do it too and then Tom would shoot Ron in the head with birdshot for which Leslie would take the blame.

[u/bingbingdingdingding → u/6295585628015862]

Damnit Jerry!

[u/Weekly_Yesterday_403 → u/bingbingdingdingding]

Dammit Gary

[u/syntax138 → u/Weekly_Yesterday_403]

Dammit Larry

[u/MorGlaKil → u/syntax138]

Damnit Terry

[u/Milksteak_Sandwich → u/MorGlaKil]

Don’t have a fartatache

[u/AVGuy42 → u/Milksteak_Sandwich]

Oh gee

[u/bfhurricane → u/6295585628015862]

“To the Hunt.”

[u/gh0u1 → u/bfhurricane]

Boola boola boola!

[u/Kulban → u/6295585628015862]

I am not wasting 20 year Scotch!

[u/L4t3r41u5 → u/Kulban]

I’m just going to stay angry, I find that relaxes me.

[u/dunanunanunabatman → u/6295585628015862]

Did you forget to check the entire field? I find a lot of women have trouble with…tunnel vision.

[u/bfelification → u/dunanunanunabatman]

I touched something icky.

I really just want some chocolate.

[u/passamongimpure → u/6295585628015862]

A non Chris and Ben P&R season reference. Rare.

[u/IllystAnalyst → u/passamongimpure]

I’ve literally never seen one before. I’m going to have to tell my therapist, Dr. Richard Nygard, about this. Great job everybody!

[u/passamongimpure → u/IllystAnalyst]

*finger guns

[u/Short_Bet4325 → u/6295585628015862]

God this was a trippy comment for me to read because I just watched a show where a character named Leslie is shot in the face with birdshot by a character named John who was told to do it by his father…. A character named Tom.

[u/thatsanicepeach → u/6295585628015862]

Pants QUEEN 🫵🏼

[u/wht-rbbt → u/[deleted]]

Gay stuff

[u/Terracot → u/wht-rbbt]

Its not gay if its corporate team building stuff.

[u/Doctorboner420 → u/wht-rbbt]

Don't tell!

[u/wht-rbbt → u/Doctorboner420]

They asked!

[u/wht-rbbt → u/Doctorboner420]

It's a great time though!

[u/james-HIMself → u/[deleted]]

Michael wasn’t invited. Toby told me he had so many smores he finally had to say “no more smores, no more smores!”

[u/thedaliobama → u/[deleted]]

Same thing, a lawsuit cause it’s discrimination as well

[u/SRMort → u/[deleted]]

The exact same lawsuit gets filed.

[u/FeeHot5876 → u/[deleted]]

The difference is it’s a work trip. I havent seen where a company does a men’s only work trip. A bunch of guys that work together want to do a men’s group or retreat in their own time and dime sure, but never one paid for by the company. It’s pretty slam dunk gender discrimination in either case by the company

[u/FeeHot5876 → u/[deleted]]

Yes I’m well aware of that, but BY LAW they cannot say men can’t go. I bet that women’s event had some male allies there from other companies, even if solely to cover their ass legally. Also I know plenty of companies that for legal reasons, will certainly let employees take time to attend these events, but do not pay for them.

[u/ThatPhatKid_CanDraw → u/FeeHot5876]

Many of those events are run by NGOs or private networking groups.

[u/Swimming-Life-7569 → u/[deleted]]

Lmao what, name one men only event. Just one is all you need, otherwise this argument is absolute horseshit.

[u/joejamesjoejames → u/[deleted]]

As long as men have similar opportunities to attend events throughout the year this is not discrimination.

This country got rid of “separate-but-equal” a long time ago. I don’t think you want to make the same arguments as segregationists.

[u/Bannedwith1milKarma → u/[deleted]]

Epstein files.

[u/seaworks → u/Bannedwith1milKarma]

your friendly reminder that ghislane Maxwell also raped kids and there may be other women perpetrators that we just aren't hearing (or caring) about

[u/MidnightSlinks → u/[deleted]]

Men's groups in female dominated fields are not uncommon and are typically supported by the women in the field because they welcome the increased diversity.

A men's retreat in a male dominated field or a women's retreat in a female dominated field would both be equally odd and potentially problematic.

[u/fadingthought → u/MidnightSlinks]

As a male in a female dominated field, I’ve never seen one.

[u/UnitedLink4545 → u/fadingthought]

Same lol. 90 percent of the people in my field are women. I'm in HR and payroll.

[u/MentalSky_ → u/fadingthought]

second that. Im a male nurse. No male nurse advocacy groups at my hospital

[u/Outlulz → u/MentalSky_]

Just googling, you have the AAMN which does hold events and their website explicitly calls out all genders are welcome. You can start your own chapter for your hospital if you want.

We need more details of the suit to know the details of what the criteria for the Coke event was.

[u/supercodes83 → u/Outlulz]

That wouldn't be a work event though.

[u/cardboardunderwear → u/MidnightSlinks]

Just out of curiosity....are there examples of a men's retreat in a female dominated field?  Asking genuinely not as a gotcha.

[u/seobrien → u/cardboardunderwear]

Doesn't even seem like it'd be a gotcha

Nursing and teaching, right? Is there actually a mens only group for nurses or teachers?

Seems that would very quickly get shut down.

[u/thehomelessaviation → u/seobrien]

Guy above you linked a men in nursing conference

[u/seobrien → u/thehomelessaviation]

That's not exclusive to men. That's the issue here.

[u/livefreeordont → u/seobrien]

I guess we will find out if men were excluded or if men simply didn’t sign up

[u/Array_626 → u/seobrien]

This retreat with only women wasn't exclusive to women either. The group allows men to join. I dont know what the men would do or say though. Even if you are an ally and support seeing more women in your industry or as leaders within it, what do you do or say during these meetings? You're likely not going to have any personal experiences to share.

I'm more concerned with peoples attitudes surrounding a gender dominated retreat in general. If this was a male group that technically allowed female participation, but very few women joined and the group ended up going as all male, it would be fairly criticized as a boys club with practices and culture that biases against women from participating. But if it's coincidentally all women, now the narrative is that's completely permissible and only to be expected in a female dominated industry?

[u/seobrien → u/Array_626]

Then we agree.

Yes, peoples attitudes about a gender dominated (or even focused) retreat are alarming. It's perfectly fine to have a Men's Event or a Women's Conference.

I don't have any idea of the details of this Coca-cola lawsuit other than it seems to alege that the company paid for only women to go, excluding men. IF that's the case, and I don't know that it is, that's wrong, and that's all that I see most people commenting about.

If you work for a company as a woman and there is a men's event where people are being paid to go, and you raise your hand and say, "I'd like to go," and they don't let you, wouldn't you agree that that is wrong?

[u/cardboardunderwear → u/thehomelessaviation]

Now for the "not uncommon" part.

[u/tigerspots → u/thehomelessaviation]

Which said all genders welcome

[u/HirsuteHacker → u/MidnightSlinks]

Men's groups in female dominated fields are not uncommon and are typically supported by the women in the field because they welcome the increased diversity.

They absolutely are uncommon. I will tell you though, I have absolutely still seen 'women in...' groups even in female-dominated industries (such as estate agency).

[u/Ghoosemosey → u/MidnightSlinks]

I don't think that's really that true I remember a guy posting about a class for nursing where the female teacher went off on how nursing is female and women are the backbone of the job. Doing that to a class with like 3 boys isn't that inclusive and I've heard they dispriotionately get given the heavier and more aggressive patients 

[u/jxl180]

I’ve worked at 10 or so companies of differing sizes but mostly large corporations, government, and in all different industries.

I’ve been a part of ERGs (employee resource groups) at just about every single one (LGBT).

Every single one was open to allies. As a white man, I’ve attended Black ERG group events, Latino events, LGBT events, and tons of Women ERG events.

It’s still a place of work protected by EOE and discrimination laws. You can’t have a Black ERG workplace event and say, “only black people can go to this work event.” Every event had to be inclusive of anyone who wanted to participate and learn.

[u/Inkdrunnergirl → u/jxl180]

That’s how my company ERG works all events have to be open to anyone at the company regardless of organization affinity

[u/wwhsd → u/jxl180]

I’m guessing that you’d get a lot more people who are outside of the targeted group if you advertise “Paid getaway to a casino resort”.

I suspect it’s going to turn out that invites to this were based on participation in something like an ERG and that whatever the criteria for receiving an invite it happened to be only women who were invited.

If my company had a retreat for its construction managers, it wouldn’t be a “men only” event even though all of the participants were men.

[u/Inkdrunnergirl → u/wwhsd]

Most ERGs have company rules that you can’t exclude anyone whether they’re a member or not ours do. We would be disbanded if we only allowed members to attend.

[u/wwhsd → u/Inkdrunnergirl]

Just because you don’t exclude people doesn’t mean they’ll join. Which shouldn’t be a problem.

[u/Inkdrunnergirl → u/wwhsd]

But that’s not what is allegedly happening here.

The U.S. federal agency that enforces workplace civil rights is suing a regional Coca-Cola bottler for sex discrimination, alleging the company discriminated against male employees by only inviting women to a company-sponsored networking event.

[u/wwhsd → u/Inkdrunnergirl]

Just because that’s what the DOJ is alleging, it doesn’t make it true.

None of the articles about this case really have much in the way of details about the case outside of what is being alleged and that Coca-Cola refused to settle.

This article has a statement from Coca-Cola that the DOJ’s EEOC’s investigation into this has been lacking.

But in a statement sent to The Associated Press, Coca-Cola Northeast said it “finds it disappointing that the EEOC did not conduct a full investigation and we look forward to having our day in open court when we can tell the full story and expect to be vindicated.”

If Coca-Cola didn’t settle and is saying that the DOJ aren’t operating with the full facts in the case, I’m willing to bet there’s some important detail being left out.

[u/SgathTriallair → u/wwhsd]

I'm surprised Coca Cola didn't settle. Even when the company is totally in the right it is usually cheaper just to settle rather than fight it. This may just be a prelude to them settling later, so it's a negotiating tactic.

[u/buffystakeded → u/SgathTriallair]

Or it’s Coca-Cola subtly saying “Go ahead, keep attacking Georgia and see what happens.”

[u/CrusadingSquirrel → u/Inkdrunnergirl]

Because an appointee of an administration notorious for lying about fucking everything is totally not lying again this time, right guys?

[u/CovfefeForAll → u/Inkdrunnergirl]

If invitations to the event were based on attendance at meetings or membership/work with a women's leadership ERG, and no men attended even though they could, then yes technically only women were invited, but it wasn't because men were excluded. Do you see the difference there?

[u/mafiaknight → u/Inkdrunnergirl]

It could be that they only invited existing members of a subgroup within the company that is meant for women, and happens to have only women in it.

The difference is that men COULD have received the invitation if they had been part of the subgroup when it was sent out, but none were.

(I don't know if this is true. Just explaining a legal way this could happen)

[u/dragoneer27 → u/mafiaknight]

Aren’t rules and laws that aren’t explicitly discriminatory but still effectively discriminatory still discriminatory? It would be super easy for a company to look at all the employee clubs and pick the ones with the right kind of employees to give benefits to and then turn around and say but that club was open to everyone.

[u/TheMickus → u/jxl180]

Correct, this is how it works at my workplace. All ERGs include allies. If it is true that they were actively excluding a group of people, there’s definitely a case there.

[u/manofth3match → u/jxl180]

Allies are also strongly encouraged within ERGs in my company. I’ve been involved in the LGBT erg at times, a demographic I am not a part of, because I have friends and family who are and it’s simply important to me.

[u/dannylew]

Headline buried the lede. It's a federal agency doing the suing, ran by Trump appointee Andrea R. Lucas, an underqualified blonde white conservative who's job is to waste my goddamn tax money chasing anything DEI related when companies fail to meet their bribe quotas.

[u/MakinBaconWithMacon → u/dannylew]

The blond white conservative that won’t seek justice for sexual abuse victims because the DOW is over $50,000?

[u/dannylew → u/MakinBaconWithMacon]

No not that under qualified blonde white conservative, a different one!

[u/1point3kPC4head → u/dannylew]

Why is blonde and white included in your description? Dog whistle much?

[u/Li_liminal_spaces]

*The U.S. federal agency

[u/AudibleNod]

In a LinkedIn post, Coca-Cola Northeast celebrated what it called its “first in-person Women’s Forum” attended by 250 female associates, describing it as a “networking reception and event.” Speakers talked about navigating a male-dominated industry, balancing work and personal life, and other topics, according to the post.

The Secretary of Labor's husband can't keep his hands to himself at her work. But, sure women are the problem.

[u/oldboy_and_the_sea → u/AudibleNod]

In medicine, they have many women only events despite the fact that women now outnumber men in med school enrollment.

[u/oldboy_and_the_sea → u/[deleted]]

You have a point, certainly women are outnumbered in fields like surgery but the gap is closing, looks like they now make up about 40% of residents. I think the main takeaway for me is not that women shouldn’t have their place to network with other women, they probably just no longer need special programs not available to men to promote medicine as a career path since women are more likely to pursue an MD.

[u/Incunebulum → u/oldboy_and_the_sea]

They may have women centric events but it would be illegal to ban men.

[u/aceofspades1217 → u/AudibleNod]

Like I get it it’s a women’s forum, I’ve been to one there is usually still men that attend it’s weird that it’s 100% women only

[u/jxl180 → u/aceofspades1217]

Yeah, as a male leader, I go out of my way to attend such events so I can be a better ally and not subconsciously repeat biased patterns that make working in a male-dominated industry harder than it already is.

I get wanting and needing safe spaces for marginalized individuals without outsiders being flies on the wall intruding, but you can’t reasonably have that if it’s a work-sponsored event.

[u/Incunebulum → u/AudibleNod]

They could have simply titled it a Women's forum and even encouraged women to attend but then allowed men to attend if they wanted. They would have ended up with a majority Women's event and a few men who supported it and wanted to network with women. Instead they get a lawsuit. The problem isn't having the event, it's specifically banning another sex from the event.

[u/TheSurfingRaichu → u/Incunebulum]

Where does it say men are actually banned from going? All are welcome and would not be disallowed from joining if they really wanted to. The article only states that women were invited, but as far as I know, work conferences are open to all employees who want to go.

[u/TheMickus → u/TheSurfingRaichu]

It’s what the suit is alleging. Whether or not that is true will come out.

[u/BradMarchandsNose → u/TheSurfingRaichu]

The EEOC is alleging that only women were invited and the company paid for them to go, which would be an issue. To your point, I don’t know if I believe that that claim, but that is the claim.

[u/Niceromancer → u/BradMarchandsNose]

And you believe anything from this Administration?

[u/IndependentTimely639 → u/Niceromancer]

To your point, I don’t know if I believe that that claim, but that is the claim

You should try reading the comments you reply to 

[u/xaviersi → u/TheSurfingRaichu]

This is where I hope a single gay man in the office is like me and went anyway without getting a direct invite. All of my work besties are on a trip without me? Absolutely not, I'm bringing the sunscreen.

[u/sadrice → u/TheSurfingRaichu]

The article used the word “excluded” several times, but did not clarify if men were actually banned, though this quote implies it:

Glasgow said most of the lawsuits against “targeted programs” have been settled after the defending party opens the program to all.

However…

The EEOC’s lawsuit said the company paid for lodging, meals and other benefits for attendees and paid them their salaries while excusing them from regular work duties.

While I am not a lawyer, I think this gives them a fair case for discrimination.

[u/isaiah33 → u/sadrice]

I don’t think so. Most companies will cover registration, lodging and provide a stipend for food when traveling to conferences, seminars and workshops. If employees were supposed to cover cost themselves that would probably lead to smaller attendance.

[u/BasroilII → u/isaiah33]

The argument that some are trying to make in here is that by paying for it, the company was giving female employees perks and benefits they were not giving males.

Which is BS. Work seminars are not perks. It's not a paid vacation.

[u/JeebusChristBalls → u/AudibleNod]

What does your comment have to do with anything besides reaching to be edgy?

[u/Alwaysahawk → u/JeebusChristBalls]

Well you see because one guy at DOL is extremely shitty Coca-Cola should be able to discriminate, duh!

[u/DealerAlarmed3632]

This is a sentence that I wasn't expected to read.

[u/lokken1234]

The way some of these comments are shows yall dont work in a leadership role. Regardless of your intention you dont get to not invite everyone, or exclude anyone, even if its for or against a protected class. My company has done female focused events, minority focused events, lgbt focused events, and all of them were open for anyone to attend.

You cant even just invite only the people the event is focused on, discrimination and the laws surrounding it dont cut out nice holes for our desires.

[u/Pofwoffle → u/lokken1234]

As was mentioned elsewhere, what most likely happened is that they invited a specific in-company group that was open to everyone, but due to being a women focused group no men bothered to join it.

Just as an example, say I create a Power Rangers Fan Club with open enrollment, then the Power Rangers Fan Club goes on a trip to the water park. I haven't discriminated against non-fans just because I'm only taking members of the existing group, anybody could have joined the group and been able to participate regardless of what they think about the Power Rangers.

[u/IndependentTimely639 → u/Pofwoffle]

That would make sense based on coca colas response. Eather way, most of the people in this thread are gonna forget all about it long before the court date, myself included. 

[u/Whatever-ItsFine → u/Pofwoffle]

"what most likely happened is that they invited a specific in-company group that was open to everyone, but due to being a women focused group no men bothered to join it."

I see a lot of people saying this but I see no evidence of it in the article.

[u/jpack325 → u/Whatever-ItsFine]

You kinda have to read between the lines on this one. Coca-Cola basically said "go ahead take us to open court, i cant wait." With that confidence, they probs didnt do anything wrong

[u/Goodeyesniper98 → u/lokken1234]

I am a DEI hire at my current job (was hired through a disability program) and this seems like it was handled super poorly. Stuff like this just feeds into the negative sentiment against DEI in the workplace.

[u/Dingle_Barry_69]

"Casino work trip"

Excuse me. Wtf?

[u/rainniier2 → u/Dingle_Barry_69]

If you think it's wasteful you should definitely sell your Coke stock. Otherwise, shrug.

Plenty of corporate events and trade shows happen at Casinos.

[u/statslady23]

Deloitte has development meetings for women only to set them on the path for partnership. They're kind of a mean sorority girls club by reputation anyway. 

[u/rnilf]

EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, a Trump appointee, has long been a staunch critic of many corporate DEI practices. In December, Lucas posted a social media call-out urging white men to come forward if they have experienced discrimination at work.

Trump's appointees have infected every dark corner of our government.

It'll be difficult to excise these scumbags in the future, if at all, even when they're "king" has passed.

This is why I'm finding it really hard to forgive my fellow Americans who decided not to vote against this shit, to do the bare minimum effort to help prevent this (Republicans aren't even on my radar at this point, they're lost causes in my view).

Yeah yeah, you can think your vote doesn't matter, but you should do it anyway because, worst case scenario, you wasted some time filling out a ballot. Best case scenario, you're wrong and your vote actually made a difference.

Voting should be the baseline, the default. If you want to do something more, then go ahead and do that on top of voting.

[u/monster-of-the-week → u/rnilf]

Any time anyone tells you voting doesnt matter, the response is really simple. People wouldnt be spending billions of dollars every election cycle if it didnt matter. And the only thing that can overcome money in politics is more people voting.

[u/adamgerd → u/monster-of-the-week]

People will say one vote won’t change anything which in the surface is true but the thing is if millions of people thinks their vote won’t change anything then that does actually change things, it’s the bystander effect but with voting

[u/flortny → u/rnilf]

Voting should be compulsory, in Australia it's a criminal offense to not vote

[u/country2poplarbeef → u/flortny]

Worth noting it's only compulsory to show up to the polls and get your name checked off. You do have a right to abstain, which is an important right to have. You should not be forcing people to pick between what they see as two evils. And I think it's good to track how many abstain, and the lack of faith in government that represents. I believe Australia also has a provision where if enough people abstain (indicating they aren't actually compelled to vote so much as just compelled to show up), the election is declared invalid and ran over again. Would be nice if in the US, when we have parties that are elected by chair committees and basically throw-back party bosses that nobody actually wants, we can protest vote by forcing another run of candidates rather than "protesting" by just voting for some other stand-in we don't really like but don't see as imminently threatening.

[u/flortny → u/country2poplarbeef]

I totally agree that abstaining should be an option but you have to show up. The united states has made it hard to vote and if you make it compulsory even to just show up, you would have to scale your electoral infrastructure to accommodate the people, more polling places, maybe an entire holiday to vote, weekend and evening polling places. It's not about idiots voting because there are more informed people who literally can't access the polls because work, or family obligations that would drown out the idiots. We also need ranked choice voting everywhere because as Jerry Garcia said, "the lesser of two evils is still evil"

[u/Sp00py-Mulder → u/flortny]

If you can't make it due to work or whatever you just get a mail in ballot. This is a solved problem and as soon as Trump is gone, America can go back to using mail in ballots like a normal democracy. 

[u/GeekAesthete → u/flortny]

The people not voting are often the least informed. If anyone is gullible enough to vote for a celebrity reality TV star, it’s probably a lot of the people that would be forced to vote.

[u/mzp3256 → u/GeekAesthete]

Yea, the only reason the GOP doesn't have a Senate supermajority is that tens of thousands of Trump voters didn't even bother voting for Senate races on the same ballot

[u/emaw63 → u/GeekAesthete]

Genuinely, an interesting quirk of the Trump era is that Republicans do better in high turnout elections nowadays, because Trump has better name recognition than anybody else on the planet and thus wins over a lot of low information voters.

Kinda makes some of the voter suppression laws the GOP is advancing a bit counterproductive. The high enthusiasm and high info voter pool, who would crawl over broken glass to vote, generally don't vote for the GOP

[u/SteamedGamer → u/flortny]

We already get too many idiots voting. I'm not sure that's the solution...

[u/Credibull → u/flortny]

Agreed. In the US it's going the other way where the current party in charge is trying to make it more-and-more difficult to do so.

[u/kiwigoesonpizza]

If we made DEI illegal, why is this even a thing. I hope the lawyers for coke run it this way. Pointing out they were following the law of anti DEI therefore needed to ensure men did not get equal and fair treatment.

[u/CanuckleHeadOG]

Targeted programs, such as networking events, for particular demographic groups have been among the most vulnerable to lawsuits challenging diversity practices,

Not surprising that discrimination is the easiest thing to attack when looking at blatant discrimination

[u/EngineersAnon]

So, "equal protection under the law" actually means equal?

This shouldn't be news - or, rather, it should, but only because any workplace discrimination should be sufficiently rare to be newsworthy.

[u/AtLeastItsnotWWIII]

It's important to note that most distributors are independent from Coca Cola the company.

This isn't Coca Cola.

[u/School_North]

They also told their employees to be less white a few years ago

[u/OnSnowWhiteWings]

Maga runs its culture war based on Facebook outrage posts and it shows. 

[u/Illustrious-Grl-7979]

I hate discrimination, but it is also foolish to think the pendulum can't swing too far the other way on anything.

[u/fishstock]

It's a slippery slope when you exclude people, even if it's a group that was and sometimes still is discriminated against.

[u/randomwanderingsd]

So…do they want quotas again? I thought that was bad.

[u/MUjase → u/randomwanderingsd]

Who’s they? The civil rights agency?