One company issued a press release announcing their participation in the International Women's Day festivities. It read:

[Company] CEO, [Man], is joining the nation in solidarity of women's rights and values by giving his female employees paid time off March 8th. With nearly 35 percent of his company's positions held by women - including a majority of the executive seats and almost the entire PR department - much of the site's operations will shut down for the day.

When Amy Alkon read this, she noticed a big problem with it. She wrote back for clarification:

Alkon: So, men have to work and only women get the day off?

PR person: Yes. Women across the country are participating in a national day of strike (called "A Day Without Women") on International Women's Day as a way of showing how important women are in the workplace. [Company] CEO supports this movement and has encouraged any women in the office who wish to participate to do so.

Alkon: "yes" meaning that men have to work while women get the day off?

PR person: Correct. ​

Hum...  Suzanne Lucas, a friend of Alkon, heard about this exchange and was aghast at the double standard:

You cannot do this. You cannot give women one more vacation day than you give men. It may be popular to say, "Hey, let's do this protest!" or what have you, but federal law prohibits gender discrimination--and that means everyone is a protected class.

But when Lucas emailed the company, the representative suddenly changed her tune.

All employees working for [Company] are treated equally. The point of this press release was to show that although many would think working for a [Company] dating site would involve working in an anti feminist environment that is not actually the case. In order to support International Women's Day the CEO gave ALL employees an extra day off whether they used it to observe A Day Without Women or not. No laws have been violated.

Sure... "So, the company wasn't actually violating discrimination laws," Lucas wrote, "they were just announcing that they were. I don't think this falls into the category of law breaking, just the category of dumb."

Yes, a number of International Women's Day festivities can be filed into that category.

Image Source: Twitter