This week, I was going to write about outer space. There was an awesome all-female space walk and I was excited to write about why it took so long and how cool it was. But then, one of my dear friends sent me something from HuffPost. As I read it, my jaw dropping and my brain spinning, I knew that I had to share it with you and to ponder with you the same question that I always have when I read stories like this—how in the world does this keep happening?

First, a little background on this story. In June of 2018, in an attempt to “train” around 30 female executives, the financial company Ernst &Young provided professional development about how to get ahead as a woman in business. The training, dubbed PPP, or Power-Presence-Purpose, was designed to help women become better executives. But the training those women received was anything but useful. Instead, women were talked to about the age-old, disgusting, and stereotypical business norms. Keep clothes conservative, keep your voice soft, be thin, have manicured nails, and basically be seen but not heard. If you are already irritated, I don’t blame you. But just wait, there is more.

In general, I would like to say that I do not think that food and gender metaphors are useful. Ever. If you find yourself wanting to use one, I (not softly) suggest that you stop and use almost anything else. My advice would have benefited this seminar, which compared women’s brains to pancakes, soaking up syrup indiscriminately and explaining that this is why women have trouble focusing. Men’s brains, in addition to being 6-11% larger (the seminar leaders pointed out) are more like waffles, in that they have small squares that keep the syrup from being completely absorbed, allowing men to focus on more things. I’ll give you a moment to recover from that little bit of science trivia you never knew…. Alright, now that you are back, let’s talk about this. Leaving alone the science, which says that men and women are basically both terrible at multitasking, you have to wonder what room of people thought that it was a good idea to compare brains to breakfast foods. This is insulting to everyone’s brains in this situation. But more than that, what exactly were these female executives supposed to do with this information? Make sure that their brains weren’t too distracted by thought blueberries or harassment kiwis to do their work? There is no scenario in which this is good information for executives.

Another part of the training notable for its offensiveness and general fake science was a masculine/feminine score sheet, in which women were asked to rate themselves in the following “masculine” and “feminine” categories both in and out of work. See if you can discern any pattern in the characteristics attributed to each:

Feminine

Cheerful

Does Not Use Harsh Language

Gullible

Gentle

Flatterable

Loves Children

Yielding

Masculine

Athletic

Competitive

Ambitious

Assertive

Has Leadership Abilities

Self-Sufficient

Willing to Take a Stand

Oh my lord. I’m not even sure where to begin on this. How these executives did not just walk out of this professional development is a genuine mystery to me.

The story of this workshop is truly horrifying. But there is a larger question here. How did this happen? Surely, you and I, dear reader, are not the only ones to realize that this is truly insulting, unhelpful, and archaic professional development. It isn’t supported by any current organizational research and doesn’t actually help to improve job performance, which is in no way correlated to the shape of one’s neckline or fingernails. So then why didn’t anyone say anything? Time and again, we see that things like this happen and are well-known and, in many cases, well-kept secrets of a company. Once again, as in times before, we ask where the allies were. Maybe the women did not feel that they could walk out of the training? But where were the allies beforehand, who knew what was going to be provided at the workshop and said nothing? Again we look, and again we do not find them.

It is worth noting that Ernst and Young says that this training is no longer offered in that exact format, though what exactly that means, who can say? Maybe they mixed up the breakfast metaphors? Whatever it is, I think the place for this and all PD that looks like this is in the dishwasher of history, along with the detritus of whatever breakfast snack you would like to compare my brain to.

Have you seen professional development like this? Let us know either in the comments or on our contact page! We would love to hear from you.

-Amy