Gender Bias Lawsuit Against Pinterest Ends in ‘Largest Settlement’

Settlements for gender discrimination lawsuits are not often revealed, especially in the male-dominated industries.

Online scrapbook Pinterest will pay former chief operating officer Francoise Brougher $22 million in a deal reached to settle a gender discrimination suit.

(Photo: Pinterest/Altered by TheQuint)

Online scrapbook Pinterest will pay former chief operating officer Francoise Brougher $22 million in a deal reached to settle a gender discrimination suit.

In a tweet, Brougher released their joint statement: “Pinterest and Francoise Brougher have reached a settlement that includes an investment of $2.5 million to be used towards advancing women and underrepresented communities in the tech industry.”

Valued at over $2 billion, Pinterest is a virtual scrapbook, used predominantly by women, to share and browse mood boards as per their interest. 440 million users from around the world use Pinterest every month, said a report in The Guardian.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

Settlements for gender discrimination lawsuits are not often revealed – especially in the male-dominated industry of technology.

Brougher, who was fired in April on a video call with Pinterest’s chief executive Ben Silbermann, revealed that she agreed to the settlement only on the condition that it “was made public.” This is to help other women in the industry, she added.

Speaking to The New York Times, Sharon Vinick, an employment lawyer who worked on a similar case, said that the settlement reflected the “seismic shift in attitudes towards gender discrimination,” and that companies should not dismiss bias as those “that can be settled for ‘nuisance value.’”

WHAT’S THE LAWSUIT AGAINST?

In a blogpost titled The Pinterest Paradox: Cupcakes and Toxicity, Brougher brought to light the lawsuit against her former employer. She accused the company of bias in payment, leaving her out of decision making, and subjecting her to a hostile work environment, reported AFP. She added that she was fired when she spoke about bias in the company.

“Although 70 percent of Pinterest’s users are women, the company is steered by men with little input from female executives. Pinterest’s female executives, even at the highest levels, are marginalised, excluded and silenced,” she wrote in the blog.

Brougher, who helped Pinterest go public, said that she discovered she was underpaid compared with her male peers when she read the company’s official filings ahead of its flotation on the stock market.

Prior to joining Pinterest in March 2018, Brougher served as an executive at Charles Schwab, Google and Square.

PINTEREST’S HISTORY

In July 2020, two black female former Pinterest employees – Ifeoma Ozoma and Aerica Shimizu Banks – also publicly accused the company of racial and gender discrimination. The duo, who worked as Pinterest public policy and social impact managers respectively, said co-workers, managers and human resource staff subjected them to discriminatory treatment.

Following the allegations, hundreds of Pinterest staff organised a virtual walkout, and signed a petition that said: “I am [upset/angry/shocked/unhappy/whatever you’re feeling] about the racial and gender discrimination that has happened at Pinterest, and am leaving work early today. Join me. changeatpinterest.com.”

(With inputs from The Guardian, The New York Times, AFP0