“Integrating feminism into our marketing is not a ploy, and it’s not exploitative; it’s a reclamation of how brands treat and speak to women,” proclaimed Miki Agrawal, a founder of Thinx, in a Medium post last year.

But last week, Thinx, the “period-proof” underwear and feminine hygiene company based in New York, entered the growing canon of employers that have been accused of failing to live up to their socially conscious branding. Former Thinx employees, many of them women in their 20s and 30s, allege some very un-feminist practices, including substandard pay, verbal abuse and sexual harassment. Thinx has denied the harassment allegations, made by a former employee in a legal complaint, and says other allegations about the company’s culture are inaccurate. Still, the story of Thinx has broader implications for all workers.

Some former employees saw their experiences at Thinx as personal betrayals, given the company’s ethos of female empowerment, Racked reported. The initial maternity leave policy — just two weeks at full pay plus one week at half — seemed unconscionably meager for a company promoting its feminist, body-positive bona fides. Worse, Ms. Agrawal has been accused by a former employee of unwanted physical contact, which, if true, would constitute a violation of everything the company stands for.

Ms. Agrawal founded Thinx with her twin sister, Radha, and Antonia Saint Dunbar in 2011. Through savvy marketing, Thinx linked its principal product, absorbent underwear, with a mission to break social taboos about menstruation. To that end, Thinx sells T-shirts emblazoned “Real Menstruating Human” and has created charitable partnerships and initiatives aimed at providing hygiene products and education to girls in the developing world.