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Sony is currently in the midst of a class-action lawsuit centered around the allegations of widespread sexism at the company, with Sony's former IT security analyst, Emma Majo, bringing these allegations to the forefront. Though the company already requested for the court to dismiss the lawsuit, it seems to be picking up steam, instead.
Notably, the claims of sexism present at Sony's PlayStation studios seem to have been corroborated by a number of other women, giving the lawsuit more weight in the eye of the law. The ongoing class-action lawsuit, then, currently includes former veteran staff that has had in-depth insight into how Sony and its PlayStation division behave in this regard.
Emma Majo submitted her Sony sexism lawsuit late in 2021, with the allegations of gender discrimination, sexism, and Majo's own wrongful firing upon bringing these issues up taking center stage. Eight more women have now stepped up with their own experiences working at Sony, one of whom is a 16-year PlayStation veteran, Marie Harrington. According to Harrington, promotions were a major sore spot for Sony/PlayStation, with women regularly getting ignored in lieu of their male counterparts, and with their private lives getting brought up in a way that didn't extend to male candidates.
Kara Johnson, a former Sony program manager who also joined the class-action lawsuit, said that Sony simply isn't equipped to appropriately handle workplace toxicity, citing multiple attempts of notifying her superiors about the presence of a gender bias and a bias against pregnant women, in particular. The lawsuit is particularly interesting in the context of PlayStation's commentary about Activision's response to similar allegations.
Other instances of sexism mentioned in the lawsuit include, but are not limited to, demeaning gender-based commentary, unwelcome advances, an imbalance in employee distribution, and resistance to acting on behalf of women who report these problems at Sony. Some allegations are notably similar to those made during the Riot Games gender discrimination lawsuit, but it remains to be seen if the court will react in this particular instance.
Curiously, it wasn't long ago that Sony found itself in the midst of yet another class-action lawsuit, this one concerning Sony's digital PlayStation sales restrictions. Originally filed in the May 2021, this suit claimed that Sony was monopolizing a number of exclusive game releases and increasing its prices to make use of the given market positioning. Time will tell whether Sony manages to react to the more serious claims of sexist behavior at the company, but it's clear that its lawyers have got a long road ahead of them, no matter what.
Source: Axios