Staffers for women’s coworking space The Wing submitted a list of demands to company leadership following the resignation of Audrey Gelman as CEO of the startup she cofounded.
“Audrey Gelman’s resignation is not enough,” Wing employees began tweeting Thursday morning. In an accompanying statement, employees said that they were participating in a “digital walkout” on Thursday and had shared demands with leadership to correct the “egregious fact” that “The Wing doesn’t practice the intersectional feminism it preaches.”
The walkout organizers told Coins2Day that employees would not be returning to work until their three primary demands were met. They did not share the demands with Coins2Day.
Ninety-three percent of The Wing’s employees, or 67 out of 72 workers, signed the petition, Wing employees said.
Gelman cofounded the women’s coworking space, known for its public embrace of feminism, with chief operating officer Lauren Kassan in 2016. However, former employees—especially women of color who worked in the company’s physical locations—spoke out about what they saw as a disconnect between the company’s branding and its treatment of female workers in New York Times and Wall Street Journal articles in March and April. Pieces of the criticism focused on Gelman’s leadership in particular, but employees are now saying that The Wing’s problems go deeper than her spot in the C-suite.
Employees organizing The Wing’s Thursday walkout said they were “frustrated and saddened by the incompetence and lack of accountability demonstrated time and time again by The Wing’s leadership,” according to a statement shared with Coins2Day.
“Leadership decisions have disproportionately failed and continue to fail people of color at The Wing,” the group added. “Public perception of The Wing is at an all-time low—and rightfully so.”
Gelman’s role as CEO will be taken over by a new “Office of the CEO” made up of Kassan, senior vice president of operations Ashley Peterson, and senior vice president of marketing Celestine Maddy.