A long-running sexual harassment and gender discrimination lawsuit against Nike has produced more than 5,000 pages of records, including surveys of female employees that allege sexist attitudes and behavior at the sportwear giant alongside corporate bullying and fears of retaliation.
The documents, which date back to 2018, detail how female employees at the company were concerned that Nike’s management were unlikely to address their concerns.
In one survey, obtained by the Business Insider, an employee wrote that she had been directed by male co-workers to “dress sexier”; another identified certain executives as “well known philanderers with lower level employees whom they exert influence and power over”.
In a third entry, an employee said that she had witnessed a male executive receiving oral sex from a lower-ranking female in the company gym. Another alleged that “sloppy drunk” men embraced female co-workers or invited them to “work dinners”.
A fifth respondent quoted a male manager saying: “No one gives a fuck about female empowerment.”
The so-called Starfish surveys were delivered to the chief executive, Mark Parker – who has since become Nike’s executive chairperson – in March 2018, prompting news reports and company efforts to reform Nike’s alleged “boys’ club” culture.
But the surveys themselves remained out of sight until they were unsealed after a legal challenge by Insider, the Oregonian, and the Portland Business Journal for a protective order to be lifted on a lawsuit that seeks to expand the number of plaintiffs from 14 to a class-action case involving roughly 5,000.
The court’s release of about 10 surveys may amount to around a third of those taken, according to the publication. Nike, headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, has said it does not comment on active litigation.
But Nike has previously said that inappropriate behavior at the company involved an “insular group of high-level managers, in pockets of the organization” who had “protected each other and looked the other way”.
In the surveys, one female employee described Nike as “a giant men’s sports team, where favoritism prevails and females couldn’t possibly play in the sandbox”.
Others said they had doubted Nike’s human-resources department would act on their concerns. “[Employee resources] and HR at this company are a joke,” one said.
After the surveys were delivered to Nike, Parker announced a management reshuffle and responded to employees with an apology: “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.”
The company has since made progress on pay equity and toward gender-parity in executive positions. Soon after the scandal broke, Nike announced 7,000 workers would get raises. Women now number 43% of vice-presidents at the company, up from 36% four years ago, according to the company.
