PlayStation sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit receives statements from eight more women

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The original lawsuit was filed in November

PSN
(Image credit: Sony)

Eight current and former PlayStation workers have come forward in support of a gender discrimination lawsuit against the company.

In November 2021, former Sony IT security analyst Emma Majo filed a lawsuit against Sony, alleging that the company "tolerates and cultivates a work environment that discriminates against female employees." She also claims that she was fired "soon after" she brought gender-related pay disparities to the company's attention.

Now, statements of support from seven former and one current PlayStation employees have been filed (via Axios). One statement, from former senior director Maria Harrington, outlined a culture of "systemic sexism" in which women's achievements were largely ignored by leadership. Harrington also claimed that some men at the company would share "filthy jokes and images of women."

Other statements outlined an extremely high turnover of female employees for "reasons relating to sexual discrimination, sexual harassment, and not being able to earn a promotion." In her statement, former employee Kara Johnson said that at least ten women had left her office in just four months. That level of attrition, even after the launch of the PS5, was said to have "alarmed leadership."

In an adjacent statement, Majo's lawyer said that other women had declined to speak about their experiences, as they were "too scared" of retaliation from Sony.

Ali Jones
Ali Jones
Managing Editor, News

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.