Eight more women accuse PlayStation of sexism

Eight more women who work at or were previously employed by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) have claimed that they experienced sexist treatment at the company’s US-based offices.

As spotted by Axios, the women made the allegations in support of a proposed class-action lawsuit against SIE.

Last November, former PlayStation IT security analyst Emma Majo sued the company for alleged gender discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination.

Her lawsuit claimed “Sony tolerates and cultivates a work environment that discriminates against female employees” who “are subjected to continuing unlawful disparate treatment in pay and work opportunities”.

Majo also requested court approval to expand the suit into a class action on behalf of all females employed by SIE in California over the past four years.

Last month Sony denied Majo’s allegations and requested the lawsuit be dismissed over a lack of evidence to support her claims.

But in response, eight more women have now provided their accounts of sexist treatment at the company.

They include claims that female employees were overlooked for senior roles, subject to bullying, and were choosing to leave the company in significant numbers due to discriminatory practices.

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“I believe Sony is not equipped to appropriately handle toxic environments,” Kara Johnson, a former program manager, said in her statement.

Another employee, Marie Harrington, who has worked at Sony for more than 16 years, stated that women were rarely considered for promotion, and claimed that she emailed superiors in 2018 following a news article about alleged sexism at Nike, asking them: “Can we address this before PlayStation has its own national news article?”

A hearing on Sony’s request to dismiss the suit won’t occur until before April.