In November 2021, a class action lawsuit was filed against Sony (PlayStation division) alleging “pay disparities and other instances of gender discrimination” at the company’s California offices. Sony tried to “close” the case, but it seems that more and more women are accusing the PlayStation division of sexism.
See also: Thousands of women sue Google over pay inequality
As Axios reports, the case was started by a former employee. Sony’s efforts to “dismiss” the case — with the company saying it “fails to identify a single policy, practice, or procedure at [PlayStation] that allegedly formed the basis of any widespread intentional discrimination or had a discriminatory impact on women” — have led to a number of other women adding their names and experiences to the lawsuit.
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Some of their stories include “a letter [an employee] shared with female employees when she left the company in January, citing repeated attempts to inform superiors about sexist bias, discrimination against pregnant women, and the resistance of a senior male HR to do anything to address these issues,” as well as the fact that a former employee was among 11 women who resigned in a four-month period from a single office. One former programmer wrote, “I believe Sony cannot handle toxic environments.”
As Polygon reports, the lawsuit names former Sony Interactive senior executive Marie Harrington:
Marie Harrington resigned from Sony in 2019 over “systemic sexism against women.” Harrington said that men at Sony rated female employees based on their “hotness.” She also described an instance where an engineer asked her not to wear skirts to work “because it was distracting” and alleged that male engineers went to strip clubs during breaks.
In another incident, Harrington says she requested a private breastfeeding room after giving birth to twins in 2005. She had to use a “storage room with a broken lock just off the entrance lobby.” Harrington wrote that she stopped breastfeeding early “because it wasn’t sustainable under those circumstances.”.
See also: Six more women sue Tesla for sexual harassment
The testimonies of the eight women were added to the original lawsuit filed by Emma Majo in November 2021.
Source of information: kotaku.com
