Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Fortune 500 women CEOs are beating expectations, women support their coworkers but men get credit for it more often, and Dominion Voting’s operations EVP reckons with the aftermath of the Fox News settlement. Happy Wednesday!
– Voting rights. When Nicole Nollette accepted a job as EVP of operations for Dominion Voting Systems, she didn’t think that she and her family would be doxxed or harassed. But that’s what happened after the voting operations business became a target of right-wing and election-conspiracist attacks.
“Our customers have been threatened, and their lives have been threatened,” Nollette said in an interview at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit last week. “I’m a Navy veteran and my parents are Army veterans. To see there was anyone who would think I was doing something contrary to democracy or the goals of the United States was incredibly hurtful.”
Former President Donald Trump attacked Dominion, baselessly claiming that the provider of voting software and hardware flipped votes from Trump to President Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Those attacks, amplified by conservative commentators and Fox News, emboldened those who threatened Dominion employees of all levels. Even Nollette’s parents’ address was posted online.
Dominion Voting Systems EVP of operations Nicole Nollette discusses the company’s record-breaking Fox News settlement at Fortune MPW Next Gen. Stuart Isett/Fortune Dominion last month reached a record-breaking $787.5 million settlement with Fox News just before its defamation case against the network was set to go to trial. The decision to settle disappointed some who hoped the trial would force Fox News to address the fallout of its election-lie programming truthfully and in public. But Nollette says the decision to settle was the best choice for Dominion’s customers and employees, who would have been required to give emotionally-draining testimony.
Nollette’s boss, Dominion CEO John Poulos, has predicted that the two-decade-old company’s business “ultimately goes to zero” despite its settlement with Fox. Nollette echoes the sentiment. “Our brand is destroyed at this point,” she says.
Still, besides its remaining six legal battles, the company is focused on serving customers who still rely on Dominion. While Dominion has been forced to spend much of its energy on national politics, its products are used in state and local elections nearly every week. “Every Tuesday, something is voting,” she says.
“We didn’t go out and seek this conflict,” Nollette adds. “But we are standing up to it.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
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- Working women ahead. Women aged 25 to 54 are working in greater numbers than ever before. In April, 77.5% of women in that age group participated in the workforce, beating the previous record set in 2000. A strong labor market and inflation rates have spurred the recovery from the COVID-era "she-session." Bloomberg
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- Spilling over. The divisive political culture in the U.S. is spilling over into corporate governance through shareholder proposals. The number of proposals has nearly doubled in the last year, as shareholders push companies to take a side in debates over abortion, gun control, and ESG policies. Wall Street Journal
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—Chlöe Bailey encouraging her sister Halle Bailey to break away from their duo for the lead role in The Little Mermaid
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