Battle Tactics for Your Sexist Workplace

After the latest series of national events where, as Eula says, the country has "played us for f***ing fools", Eula and Jeannie have decided it's time for a break. Like so many of us, they need some quiet and some rest. They're taking a break for the summer but hope to be back in the fall. If you have a podcast you want to share with our listeners, shoot us a message at btswpodcast@gmail.com. We're happy to see if we can drop it in our feed. And we're still reachable on Twitter and Instagram @btswpodcast. If you're a Patreon member, 1) thank you for your support! and 2) Eula and Jeannie hope to show up there over the summer with AMAs and other bonus material. It's a really hard time to be a human. Take care of yourselves. <3 See you in a few months.

When we asked the BTSW Facebook group whether they'd ever been voice policed on the job, we got a ton of stories and responses. So many that we decided we needed to dedicate a whole episode just to those stories. So today is Part 2 of our conversation with the hosts of the excellent podcast The Vocal Fries - the podcast about linguistic discrimination. Megan Figueroa is a linguist, writer, and research scientist, and Carrie Gillon is also a linguist and the language planner and researcher for the Squamish nation in British Columbia. If you haven't heard Part 1 yet, go check it out. The Vocal Fries drop some truly amazing wisdom about the connections between voice and grammar policing and white supremacy and colonialism. Battle Tactics For Your Sexist Workplace is an independent podcast! Become a patron on Patreon and help support the show.

We usually ask folks to support our show on Patreon. Today, we wanted to suggest places to support crucial abortion services. Planned Parenthood Shout Your Abortion National Abortion Federation **NOTE: During this episode, we refer to Rachel Jeantel by her last name only. We wanted to clarify and use her full name here. Rachel Jeantel was a primary prosecution witness at Trayvon Martin's murder trial. Court officials claimed she was "hard to understand" and ultimately her testimony was dismissed as not credible.** A couple months ago, Jeannie asked the BTSW Facebook group whether anyone had ever gotten criticized for how they speak or sound while at work. The response was overwhelming. So many listeners had stories about getting their voice or speech policed on the job. Megan Figueroa and Carrie Gillon know about voice policing better than most - and the many ways it causes more harm than good. They're the cohosts of the excellent podcast The Vocal Fries, the podcast about linguistic discrimination. Plus,…

Hi! We love making BTSW - and if you love listening, help us make it! Become a patron of the show or make a tax-deductible donation. "BREAKING: Schwing quits the Northwest News Network. The reason? My male colleagues make tens of thousands of dollars more for the same work. And TBH, making this public scares the S-H-star-T out of me. " That was a tweet reporter Emily Schwing sent in March 2019, after quitting her job with something called the Northwest News Network. That’s a collection of public radio stations in Washington and Idaho that do regional news reporting. (BTSW's old production partner, KUOW, is part of the Northwest News Network.) We talked with Emily because she DID a tactic we actually talked about on the show - she quit a job because she felt like she was dealing with a gender pay gap. And then - even though she didn’t really want to go public about why she quit- she went public about why she quit. And then something unexpected happened - her tweet went kinda viral. Local newspapers picked up…

Over the course of making this podcast, we have gotten a lot of messages from listeners asking for help, perspective, and advice on crappy work situations. Eula and Jeannie rounded up a bunch of those messages and brought in some deep expertise to help respond - in the form of the fantastic Keita Williams, founder and head of the elite accountability practice Success Bully. She brings insight and tons of tactics for sticky (wait! we mean sexist and racist) workplace dilemmas. NOTE: This episode was originally recorded in The Before Times (2019), but disappointingly, the problems listeners wrote in about then - from self-proclaimed woke dude co-workers who come down harder on women to gendered pay gaps to leaders bragging about never taking a sick day - are still extremely relevant. Yes, bosses are still being stingy about sick time DURING A PANDEMIC. It's a real thing. Let's all take a moment to sigh in disappointment.

We have often talked *about* straight cis white dudes on this show. But the number of times we've talked *to* them on the show? Next to never. So we wanted to revisit this bonus episode from the Before Times with two of our favorite dudes, Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh, the co-hosts of the long-running daily podcast Too Beautiful To Live. We talked about allyship and their own evolving thoughts about racism and sexism on the job. Luke also hosts Live Wire on public radio stations everywhere and Andrew also co-hosts the delightful podcasts Spotless and After These Messages.

Earlier this week, longtime NPR host Audie Cornish announced she's quitting her job. Soon after, public media Twitter started re-asking questions it's been asking for a while now: why are so many people of color leaving public radio? Audie's co-host Ari Shapiro tweeted a thread about it, including re-tweeting a list from NPR podcast host Sam Sanders listing all the hosts from underestimated backgrounds who'd recently left NPR (that list is now outdated). Other folks pointed out that this pattern doesn't end at highly visible national hosts. All over the country, at your favorite NPR member station, people in management are very likely wondering why their staff isn't more diverse. Why it's "so hard" to hire and retain people of color in public radio newsrooms. It's with that context in mind that we decided to share this episode, where Eula (a part-time freelancer) and Jeannie (a full-time permanent employee) tell the story of the day they learned their podcast would no longer be produced by the Seattle NPR…

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you wanted to be an effective ally or advocate for a co-worker, but when a situation arises that seems like you should be doing or saying something, you worry that you won’t do the most helpful thing? That your actions or words might actually make things worse for your co-worker? How do you know you’re actually helping? This is a dilemma that comes up a lot in emails from listeners. And in the Before Times, we talked to someone about exactly this question. Jeannie considers this guest a total expert in workplace advocacy and allyship....largely because she advocated for Jeannie when they worked together, and for a bunch of their colleagues. Her name is Phyllis Fletcher, an author and editor who lives here in Seattle. you've probably heard her name before - she's in Season 3 credits for providing expert editorial consulting. Eula and Jeannie originally talked with Phyllis for bonus episode for Season 2. But her tactics feel more relevant than ever. So we…

Love BTSW? Help keep it going - become a patron! How did you two meet? When it comes to this podcast, that's the question Eula and Jeannie get asked the most. And it's one of their favorite stories to tell. So on this episode, we're doing something a little different. We're having them tell the story of how they met and their friendship. Big thanks to our Senior Producer Kyle Norris for suggesting we make this a podcast episode! You're Not Uncool. Making Friends As An Adult Is Just Hard. Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close The Importance Of Work Friends

Some stuff broke, and we need a minute to regroup. We'll be back in two weeks! In the meantime, if you miss us, there's a whole bunch of fresh bonus content on our Patreon for supporting members.

Love BTSW? Help keep it going - become a patron and we'll thank you with all kinds of cool benefits, from AMAs with the hosts to show swag. "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…

We love making this podcast, but it costs money to keep going! Help us keep the show alive - become a patron and get all kinds of special thank-you goodies. There's a phenomenon researchers have observed among many women in the workplace that they call "intentional invisibility". It happens because for many women, they are both aware that they must be visible at work to get ahead - own their ideas, speak up, use their voices - while also worrying that they'll be penalized for being too visible. For being too assertive, or too intimidating, or just...too much. (Decades of research on both racial and gender bias in American workplaces indicates this is a valid concern and a real danger, btw.) So these women choose the path of less potential conflict. They shrink themselves so they're not penalized for being too big. They intentionally choose invisibility. Angela 'Merk' Nguyen has been told she's too much - at her job and even before that. But instead of shrinking and becoming invisible, she went in the…

Help support the show! Become a patron now and get all kinds of extra goodies. 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

We can't make the show without you! Become a patron and get all kinds of extra goodies. When Marisa Renee Lee's mother passed away, Marisa tried to do everything right. She continued to work hard at her job. She saved her asks for time off and support at work for when she really needed it. And she tried to make sure all the tasks that surround a loved one's illness and passing were completed in an efficient way. Her lesson: you can't project-manage and hustle your way out of grief. Even if everything around you is saying that's the way forward. We wanted to talk with Marisa after learning about the book she's writing, Grief Is Love, and after discovering she's been thinking about something we both get nerdily excited about: a new national policy! Yessss! Seriously, though, Marisa has been thinking through what a national grief policy might look like, and why the US needs one. She was Managing Director for the My Brother's Keeper Alliance and the Deputy Director of Private Sector Engagement for the Obama…

We can't make the show without you! Become a patron and get all kinds of extra goodies. A few months ago, we asked members of the BTSW Facebook group whether they were experiencing grief, and what they were grieving. We got dozens of answers - people were grieving their lives before the pandemic. Live music and theater. Child care. Friends, family, and partners. Jobs. Relationships. Those answers made something very clear - we are all grieving. Many of us are grieving multiple losses. Then we heard from a group member who's also an Episcopal minister - Anjel Scarborough. She told us what grief actually looks like. How long it takes to process. And she helped us understand something else - that as a nation, and a culture, we are terrible at recognizing grief when it's right in front of us. We don't know how to support each other or ourselves. And yes, those blind spots when it comes to grief are rooted in patriarchy. So what do we do about all that? Anjel has some tactics for us. If you are a young adult…

We can't make the show without you! Become a patron and get all kinds of extra goodies. 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.

We're baaaaaaack! Friends, we're so excited to bring you Season 3 of Battle Tactics For Your Sexist Workplace. This season, we'll take a deep look at grief (surprise! The way we handle grief is sexist!), revisit imposter syndrome, discuss what it takes (and costs) to be your authentic self at work, and we look at what may be the most sexist workplace in America: restaurants. We've missed you so much and can't wait to bring you this new season. The guests are brilliant, the tactics are fire, the facts are (as always) sad, and the jokes are (as always) pretty dorky. And if you want to help support us and get the inside scoop on upcoming episodes, become a patron of the show! https://www.patreon.com/btsw

There's no shortage of hero stories in our books, on TV, and in movies. And for a long time, most of our heroes, from flawed to super, had something in common: they were either white dudes or femme fatales. (Or in Superman's case, a space alien who passed as a white dude.) But wait! That doesn't mean we're doomed to have the same kinds of stories or the same kinds of heroes forever. Join Eula Scott Bynoe and Jeannie Yandel, hosts of KUOW’s Battle Tactics For Your Sexist Workplace podcast, for a fascinating, funny conversation about who gets to be the hero and why it matters. Eula and Jeannie will welcome real life superheroes, comic book writer G. Willow Wilson and Salon.com TV critic Melanie McFarland.

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.

On this week's podcast, we share an episode from a podcast we love, Women of Harry Potter a feminist podcast that looks at the women characters in the series. —- It’s Vanessa’s turn to bless a female character of Harry Potter, and she’s chosen to bless Madam Pomfrey for her invisible labor. Ariana invents a game about woman doctors in America.

On this week’s podcast, we share an episode from a podcast we love, Scene on Radio. The episode explores the idea of ‘himpathy,’ or the disproportionate empathy that men receive compared with other groups. —- Several years after Janey was sexually assaulted by her former boyfriend, Mathew, she told some of her closest friends, and her mother, what Mathew had done. Janey was so troubled by her loved ones’ responses, or lack thereof, that she went back to them years later to record conversations about it all. In this episode: Janey’s story, and philosopher Kate Manne, who coined the term “himpathy” in her 2017 book, Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny. With co-hosts John Biewen and Celeste Headlee. To hear more of Janey Williams’ story and the conversations she had with friends, check out her podcast, “This Happened”, available on most podcast apps and at thishappenedpodcast.com. Music by Alex Weston, Evgueni and Sacha Galperine, and Kevin MacLeod. Music and production help from Joe Augustine at Narrative Music.

Dress for the job you want. Dress for success. We have all been looking for that the magic combination of clothing that projects “I’m smart yet approachable yet not looking for inappropriate attention AT ALL yet totally a team player yet absolutely a boss yet not too bossy.” Businesses like Stitch Fix, MM LaFleur and Armoire exist because they promise to grapple with this problem for us and deliver solutions in the form of curated clothing. But what if you don’t think throwing a ton of money at this is a solution? Savannah Sly, a longtime sex worker and former cannibis startup employee has a fascinating idea about how women and non-binary people can think differently about dressing for work: think about the persona you are trying to embody. Want to help make BTSW better? Fill out our audience survey here: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=uMFXPa70OUatsTMSrjvIJ0y3PyFS25pMr1Ao2OmurhdURFdVMlZIMVM5NkoyUVREUVkyTFRQU1JESi4u

Hate your sexist boss? Ok, so why not be your own boss? This is one of the draws of pursuing freelancing as a career. While freelancing offers wonderful plus sides, it also comes with new uncertainties and pressures that many traditional jobs don’t have. And it comes with many of the same gendered and racial biases found in traditional jobs too. Award-winning journalist Celeste Headlee knows this dilemma well and shares her insights with Eula and Jeannie.

Have you ever wondered why so many people have had experiences with bad bosses? Eula Scott Bynoe and Jeannie Yandel talk about this with Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, who explains that while it’s a problem that there aren’t enough women in leadership across fields, a major contributor to that problem is an acceptance incompetent leaders, who are often men. Love this podcast? Support KUOW Public Radio and BTSW by donating here: https://kuow.org/donate/btsw?utm_source=shownotes&utm_campaign=btswbonus

It’s commonly accepted at this point that the idea of leaning in is at best flawed, at worst myopic, harmful, and privileged AF. But when Jeannie and Eula explored the book Lean In further, they noticed something troubling. Leaning In is a tactic, much like the ones they suggest on the show. Double Shift host and journalist Katherine Goldstein loved* Lean In* at first. She even started her own Lean In Circle. Today, she sees its flaws clearly - but she also thinks many of us are too quick to gloss over why it was so important and ultimately helpful. She tells Eula and Jeannie why so many of us kind of needed Lean In, even when it hurt us more than it helped us. Love this podcast? Support KUOW Public Radio and BTSW by donating here: https://kuow.org/donate/btsw?utm_source=shownotes&utm_campaign=btswbonus

Maybe Madeline Albright is right that there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women. And on BTSW we’ve leaned pretty hard into this idea that we all need to stand up and with our women co-workers. But, as evidenced by notes and stories from our own listeners, we're not all doing that. Eula and Jeannie talk to Leslie Feinzaig of the Female Founders Alliance about why it’s important to help your women and non-binary colleagues and what that actually looks like. Love this podcast? Support KUOW Public Radio and BTSW by donating here: https://kuow.org/donate/btsw?utm_source=shownotes&utm_campaign=btswbonus

BTSW has shared quitting as a viable tactic on previous episodes. If you can’t change your workplace, find a new one. Eula believes in this tactic– she's a prolific quitter. Jeannie doesn’t - she has literally never quit a job. So when is quitting a wise tactical choice? And what happens when you *DO* quit just to discover your new work reality is just a different kind of toxic? And honestly, if “quitting” is a viable tactic, why isn’t “just suck it up and deal with it” a viable tactic too? Liz Fong-Jones thought a lot about this when she quit her job at Google, and she shares her insights on how to quit strategically. Love this podcast? Support KUOW Public Radio and BTSW by donating here: https://kuow.org/donate/btsw?utm_source=shownotes&utm_campaign=btswbonus

Subscribe to this feed to get new episodes of BTSW automatically. Season 2 starts July 16th.

This episode comes to BTSW from the podcast The Doubleshift a podcast about working moms, hosted by Katherine Goldstein. Nydia Sanchez runs one of Las Vegas' only overnight, 24-hour child care centers, serving 108 kids. Many of her clients are single moms who work in casinos, and as waitresses, nurses and dancers. We visit to find out how Nydia keeps her business affordable and serves a group of moms that many bosses, and politicians, and other daycare owners just don’t think about.

Hosts Jeannie Yandel and Eula Scott Bynoe are dedicated to fighting workplace sexism, but they are also pop culture nerds who see parallels in the shows they love to to the struggles they experience in the workplace. So on this very special episode, Jeannie and Eula recap the latest episode of Game of Thrones, season 8 episode 4 and analyze the sexist workplaces of Westeros with pop culture writer Melanie McFarland. Spoilers galore, listen only if you’re caught up!

BTSW hosts Jeannie Yandel and Eula Scott Bynoe are guests on this episode of Unladylike. Cristen Conger and Caroline Ervin talk to author and parenting podcaster Hillary Frank about her skirmish with the "special misogyny" that transformed her career. Then, the co-hosts of Battle Tactics for Your Sexist Workplace take on jobby questions from Unladylike listeners.

The holidays are definitely over and we’re all definitely back at work. So Eula and Jeannie talk about their own work resolutions and how the ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ docu-series has caused each of them to think differently about what workplace sexism can look like.

What does a sci-fi thriller from the ‘80s teach us about workplace sexism? What’s surprising about how Mad Men took on workplace sexism from the ‘60s? How do we deal with films we once loved that have taken on a new meaning in the #MeToo era? Eula Scott Bynoe and Jeannie Yandel dive into sexism and power in some of our favorite films and shows with Melanie McFarland, TV critic for Salon.

If you talked to Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) even three years ago, she would have defended the rights of trolls to say whatever to whomever. But that was before the 2016 election. That was when Taylor started seeing a change online - trolls were becoming much more hateful and violent, and they seemed to multiply exponentially. One reason Taylor saw that change? Many of those trolls came after her. Taylor explains why, even though the Internet just seems to be getting worse, she still believes it can be a magical, safe place for everybody.

For the last four years, two things have happened to novelist Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) while using social media. She's gained more and more followers, and online harassers have repeatedly targeted her. She says the constant harassment feels like being in the middle of a storm with no shelter. The trolls target her son, too. Ng tells BTSW why, despite withstanding years of racist, misogynistic trolling, she still tries to respond to trolls with empathy...even while wishing she could respond with gentle electric shocks and looping in the trolls' moms.

Did you know the character The Incredible Hulk was inspired by a woman? A mom who lifted the back of a car off her small child? Turns out it was a smart move to turn the Hulk's alter ego into a white dude - research shows white men actually see their statuses rise at work for showing emotion. The opposite happens for women, though. Hosts Eula Scott Bynoe and Jeannie Yandel delve into why not even Serena Williams can safely show anger on the job, and we'll share a boatload of tactics to undo this double standard. Guests: Anne Kreamer and Cheryl Ingram

Office housework is the undervalued, cleanup work that isn’t officially part of the job. According to scholars who study office housework, women are socialized and pressured to do it. Eula Scott Bynoe and Jeannie Yandel explore the various types of housework, how it can harm your career and strategies to avoid it. Guest: Joan C. Williams, Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings

Sarah Schacht wanted to make a career out of using the internet to make democracy stronger. She joined the Howard Dean presidential campaign in an effort to do that. During Sarah’s time there, something happened that would follow her for the next 15 years. Now she’s trying to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to anybody else.

The challenges of pumping breast milk at work, juggling work life and home life and the absurd cost of childcare all tell us one thing: it’s really hard to be a working mom in the United States. Eula Scott Bynoe and Jeannie Yandel explore this problem and how employers can see motherhood as a value in the workplace. Guests: Brigid Schulte and Angela Garbes

Workplace sexism manifests itself in all sorts of tricky situations. So this week, hosts Eula Scott Bynoe and Jeannie Yandel answer your questions with the help of Keita Williams, the Founder and Chief Strategist of Success Bully. They tackle everything from how to craft an inclusive dress code to the politics of taking sick days.

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

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has built an epic career that shows no signs of slowing down; but, even the Queen Bey has had to overcome obstacles in the workplace and in her personal life. Hosts Eula Scott Bynoe and Jeannie Yandel talk with writer Ginger McKnight Chavers about how one aspect of Beyonce’s life, her feminism, can serve as an example to others struggling to find empowerment in the workplace.

Nearly everybody has grappled with imposter syndrome, the feeling that you’re a fraud or that you don’t belong. But feeling that way has consequences, and for women and people of color those consequences are more severe. Hosts Eula Scott Bynoe and Jeannie Yandel explore why your brain tricks you into feeling like an imposter and give you strategies to overcome it.

Interrupting someone is rude. We all know that. But that doesn’t stop it from happening. Overall, men tend to interrupt women more. Hosts Eula Scott Bynoe and Jeannie Yandel explore why manterruption happens and look at strategies to get your ideas heard.

Hosts Eula Scott Bynoe and Jeannie Yandel explore the gender wage gap. It’s bigger and more complex than you think. They also explore tactics that will help you and your coworkers constructively discuss and fight the gender wage gap at work. Talk. About. Pay. Guests: Ruchika Tulshyan, Ijeoma Oluo and Jacqueline Twillie

Jeannie Yandel and Eula Scott Bynoe break down how sexism works in the modern workplace. And with help from some badass experts, they bring you real tactics you can use to fight back.