New Corporate Accountability Campaign Puts Six Major Companies On Notice For Anti-Choice Political Giving

Today, UltraViolet announced a new campaign to hold six corporations accountable for their political giving to anti-choice, anti-women candidates and calls on them to end their support for such politicians entirely and to commit to investing in reproductive health and justice. AT&T, Coca Cola, Disney, Nike, Procter & Gamble and Uber all target female consumers and promote women-friendly work environments, yet they bankroll candidates who actively work against women’s rights. 

The #ReproReceipts campaign highlights the discrepancy between corporate America’s public statements in support of gender equity and their political giving to extreme anti-choice candidates. These contributions not only work against equality for women, but also racial equity and justice. In a year marked by a global pandemic, uprising against racial injustice and a historic election underway, during which each of these companies are showboating their stands on racial and gender equality, we must highlight the hypocrisy of corporate social responsibility posturing and demand companies walk their talk. Companies need to know that they can’t have it both ways. 

More than 80 percent of millennial consumers believe it is important to buy from companies that align with their values, according to a recent report on consumer behavior. Yet, outside of public statements, buyers often don’t know where their frequented brands’ values actually lie. #ReproReceipts shines a spotlight that exposes which anti-choice politicians are receiving large sums of money from some of the largest consumer-facing retailers and brands.

“These six companies embody the disconnect between corporate social responsibility efforts that are just PR posturing and actually doing right by their employees and customers. Corporate America is eager to show their support for women and diversity, but they actively work against their statements by supporting and funding anti-women candidates,” said Sonja Spoo, Director of Reproductive Rights Campaigns at UltraViolet. “The receipts are clear: these companies continue to give politically in ways that don’t align with their value statements. We invite these companies to be leaders by ending their anti-women and anti-equality political contributions.”

Supporting anti-choice politicians often is tantamount to endorsing an ideological framework that leans anti-racial justice, anti-science and anti-immigrant. These views have plunged our nation into a political crisis, hampered our response to the pandemic and endangered the lives and well-being of women, especially women of color, Indigenous women and other communities. 

UltraViolet’s campaign will include ongoing actions to call on these companies to make change, such as:

• Petitions calling for change to UltraViolet’s more than 1 million members
• Digital and print ads targeted at each company noting the misalignment of their values and political giving 
• Public actions to inform consumers these companies are anti-women
• Polling of consumers to demonstrate political giving matters
• Coordinated social action among UltraViolet’s members calling out corporate targets across digital platforms

The correlation between private political giving and the impact it has on gender equity and racial justice is impossible to ignore. Topline findings include:

AT&T
AT&T was named to the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index and came out at the top of DiversityInc.’s 2020 list of top 50 companies for diversity. While it pledges to support the growth of its employees who are people of color and women, including reproductive benefits...

• $1,956,953 (56 percent) of AT&T’s total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs including Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), David Perdue (R-OH), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Representatives Liz Cheney (R-WY), Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Steve Scalise (R-LA). Vice President Mike Pence’s Great America Committee PAC also received support. 
• Women only make up 33.2 percent of AT&T’s U.S. employees and only two of nine executives at the company. 
• People of color are 39.4 percent of AT&T’s U.S. management and 44.8 percent of its total U.S. workforce. But as recently as July 2020, AT&T workers in Memphis were protesting the company’s commitment to racial equality and treatment of workers.

Coca Cola 
As the fifth best company on the Forbes Best Employers for Women 2020, Coca-Cola also placed at the top of Comparably’s Best Company for Diversity in 2018 and 96 on the Forbes’ Global 2000 in 2020...

• $1,028,838 (59 percent) of Coca Cola’s total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs such as Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Representatives Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Steve Scalise (R-LA).
• Only three of the top ten company executives are women and people of color make up only four of ten executives. 
• Recently retired Executive Vice President Carl Ware warns that Coca-Cola is behind in shepherding women and people of color to top leadership positions.

Disney 
Seventy-two percent of Disney’s workforce is women and/or people of color and yet...

• $203,350 (51 percent) of Disney’s total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs including Senators Deb Fischer (R-NE), Marco Rubio (R-TX) and David Perdue (R-GA); Representatives Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Kevin Brady (R-TX). Both former or then (he is in the US Senate now) Governor Rick Scott (R-FL) Vice President Mike Pence’s PACs received financial support. 
• Only 25 percent of the C-Suite is made up of women.
• Disney was sued in April 2019 for the unequal pay of its female employees. 
• On diversity and inclusion, former CEO Bob Iger failed to make good on his promise to make changes in Disney’s C-suite before his tenure ended earlier this year. 

Nike 
Nike may be noted as a 2020 Forbes Best Employees for Women, has promised pay equity, and 49 percent of global employees are women, but…

• $99,000 (27 percent) of Nike’s total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs including Senators John Thune (R-SD), Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Rob Portman (R-OH) and Representatives Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Greg Walden (R-OR). 
• Nike has been called out for its lack of representation in leadership and discrimination against pregnant female athletes. 
• The company faced a class-action lawsuit in 2018 on systemic gender pay discrimination and rampant sexual harassment. 

Procter & Gamble
P&G is recognized in the Working Mother 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers and Working Mother Best Companies for Multicultural Women, but...  

• $144,000 (55 percent) of Procter & Gamble’s total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs including Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and the Ohio Republican Party. 
• These contributions counter the very initiatives and partnerships P&G pushes publicly for gender equality. They also work against the best interests of the six of 13 board members and eight of 14 executive officers who are women.

Uber 
The number of female employees at Uber grew 42.3 percent in 2019 and four out of ten board members are now women, however...

• $148,000 (36 percent) of Uber’s total political giving in 2020 was to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs including Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) as well as the Republican Governors Association and Republican State Leadership Committee.
• It is involved in a host of lawsuits for sexual harassment and settled with the EEOC at the end of 2019 for $4.4M and requires monitoring for the next 3 years. 
• Uber hired its first-ever diversity and inclusion officer only recently in response to the 2017 “Holder Report” documenting rampant harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and toxic workplace culture for women and racially diverse employees.