Add Twitter to the list of tech firms accused of gender discrimination by former employees.
With the Kleiner v. Pao gender-discrimination civil trial expected to wrap up in San Francisco this week, the treatment of women in venture firms has been under the spotlight. Two new suits alleging gender discrimination at top Internet firms indicate that this issue is not going away anytime soon.
Last week, Chia Hong, who worked at Facebook as a product manager and technology partner in finance, filed a gender and race discrimination suit in San Mateo County Court.
Hong alleges that Facebook employees would belittle and ignore her opinion during group meetings, ask why she did not just stay home and take care of her children, order her to plan parties and drinks for male co-workers even though it was not in her job description, and more, Queenie Wong reported. Facebook denied the allegations.
Also last week, Tina Huang, a former Twitter software engineer who has also worked as an engineer at Google and Apple, according to her LinkedIn account, filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court. She alleged gender discrimination at Twitter, specifically in the firm s promotion process, according to The Verge.
Huang, who left Twitter in June 2014 after working there since 2009, says the company s promotion process is a black box that tends to favor men over women. Without a published promotion criteria or application process, the system relies on a tap of the shoulder when a job comes open, Mashable reported.
In her complaint, Huang ties her case to what she says are Twitter s low numbers of women in management and leadership roles, information that Twitter released voluntarily last year. Huang seeks class-action status for her suit for all current and former female employees of Twitter denied promotions in the three years prior to the filing of this complaint.
Twitter responded that the facts will show Ms. Huang was treated fairly.
Above: Twitter logo. (LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty Images)
