Under Armour has a #MeToo reckoning over strip club trips, 'demeaning' workplace culture
Sports apparel company Under Armour no longer permits employees to charge visits to strip clubs on company credit cards, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday in a story that also alleged the trips were just one aspect of a workplace culture that has been "demeaning" to women.
Under Armour employees reportedly had a habit of going to strip clubs together and with pro athletes after business and social events. More broadly, more than a dozen current and former Under Armour employees told the Journal, female employees have been subject to disrespectful treatment including harassment by male executives and inclusion in an annual company party dependent on their appearance.
Under Armour said in a statement it acknowledges "systemic inequality in the global workplace" and pledges to "do better" to create a "respectful and empowering environment." Bonnie Kristian
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Editor's note: Kelley McCormick, senior vice president of corporate communications for Under Armour, said the company formalized a policy earlier this year emphasizing that the use of company funds for adult entertainment "was not tolerated." An earlier version of this story suggested the policy change came about as a result of the Journal's report; we regret the error.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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