A new potential class-action lawsuit accuses Sony of systemic sexism, according to the nine women that are currently involved.
While the original lawsuit was filed back in November 2021 by former PlayStation IT staff Emma Majo, eight women have joined the legal battle (Court Listener, via Engadget), where the class-action lawsuit accuses Sony of systemic sexism.
The original lawsuit from Majo alleges that she was terminated not long after submitting a signed statement to management, detailing sexism she purportedly experienced at the company. Majo filed the paperwork to turn the case into a class action lawsuit hoping more would come forward.
Following this, Sony’s lawyer tried to have the case thrown out noting it doesn’t hold up, suggesting no other women have come forward with similar grievances. With eight more women signing off on the lawsuit, things will certainly get interesting in what will likely be a prolonged legal battle.
Majo and the other plaintiffs allege that Sony discriminates against women at an institutional level. Out of the current nine women in the lawsuit, only one chooses to be anonymous.
One of the plaintiffs, Marie Harrington, was at Sony for 17 years and eventually landed the role of senior director of program management. She was also chief of staff to senior VP of engineering George Cacciopo.
“When I left Sony, I told the SVP and the Director of HR Rachel Ghadban in the Rancho Bernardo office that the reason I was leaving was systemic sexism against females,” Harrington said in a court statement. “The Director of HR simply said, ‘I understand.’ She did not ask for any more information. I had spoken with the Director of HR many times before about sexism against females.”
Harrington claimed women were frequently overlooked for promotions and during annual performance reviews, Sony engineering leaders rarely praised female employees as potential “high performers.” She noted in the April 2019 session only four of 70 employees under review were women – and only two of the women were marked as high performers, despite all the men getting high marks.
“Further, when two of the females were discussed, managers spent time discussing the fact that they have families,” Harrington added. “Family status was never discussed for any males.”
The other women in the lawsuit have similar stories and statements, with most alleging a lack of promotions and advancement for female employees, while there’s a preference for male employees. The plaintiffs also claim Sony leadership made sexist comments like “you just need to marry rich” and “I find that in general, women can’t take criticism.”
Another plaintiff said a gender equality meeting at the company had a panel made up of all men. Lastly, one plaintiff alleged that while at E3 for Sony, her superior tricked her into getting drinks together at a hotel bar, hit on her even after she said no, and later told other employees that “he was going to try to hit that.”
While the new lawsuit accuses Sony of systemic sexism, it’s similar to the ongoing Activision Blizzard lawsuit(s), which have a number of plaintiffs and allegations – including allegedly driving one female employee to committing suicide.
Not long after Microsoft announced plans to buy Activision Blizzard in a massive deal, the potential acquisition announced plans for new human resources and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” roles to help police the company.
A similar class-action lawsuit with Riot Games was filed back in 2018 and a settlement agreement came in summer 2019, with both the defendants and the claimants agreed to $10 million in payments to the claimants. However, when all parties came to the settlement table – California courts awarded the plaintiffs $100 million in damages.
Sony hasn’t responded to the new developments with the potential class-action lawsuit, however they originally denied Majo’s claims for systemic gender discrimination. The motion to have the lawsuit dismissed will be decided in a further hearing, in April 2022.
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