Athletic clothing company Under Armour has taken a hit to their stocks today after a report from The Wall Street Journal put a spotlight on some unsavory corporate spending practices. Specifically, employees had been paying frequent visits to a local adult entertainment club featuring nude dancers and charging the bills to the company. As of an email earlier in the year, employees are now prohibited from doing this, but according to the WSJ’s report, this was only one symptom of a prevailing gender inequality at the company.
Multiple former and current female employees of Under Armour were interviewed for the report. According to them, many women were invited to these club outings, with the ones chosen based on their physical attractiveness to appeal to the male employees. On these allegations, Under Armour CEO James Plank made the following statement: “Our teammates deserve to work in a respectful and empowering environment. We believe that there is systemic inequality in the global workplace and we will embrace this moment to accelerate the ongoing meaningful cultural transformation that is already under way at Under Armour. We can and will do better.”
