Former Pinterest exec alleges ‘rampant discrimination’ at ‘boys club’ tech company

A former executive is suing Pinterest, claiming the social network sacked her after she complained about sexist treatment and was marginalised for months.

Francoise Brougher, who left her role as chief operating officer at Pinterest in April, accused the company of paying her less than her male colleagues when she joined the company and belittling her work as “championing diversity issues”, according to documents filed in San Francisco Superior Court on Tuesday.

“Even at the very top ranks of a public company, female executives can be targeted for sex discrimination and retaliation,” the lawsuit stated. “Although Pinterest markets itself to women looking for inspiration, the company brazenly fired its top female executive for pointing out gender bias within Pinterest’s male dominated leadership team.”

In a lengthy blog post published after the lawsuit was filed, Ms Brougher said: “I believe that I was fired for speaking out about the rampant discrimination, hostile work environment, and misogyny that permeates Pinterest.” She said she had refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement about her exit, and wanted to speak out against the company.

“It is time to eliminate the 'boys clubs' that dominate far too many companies and make room for more women leaders and their ideas.”

Ms Brougher, who previously worked at Jack Dorsey’s fintech Square and Google, was hired as Pinterest’s first ever chief operating officer in 2018, and has helped lead the company toward its debut on the New York Stock Exchange in 2019.

It was then, when reading public documents about employee compensation, that she learned that she was paid less than her male colleagues.

Despite holding a “C-suite” rank and managing “a large complex organisation”, she found that she was not on the list of highest paid employees, and had been given less shares than her male colleagues, according to the lawsuit.

Upon her recruitment, Ms Brougher was handed 300,000 shares of the company, which is now worth $21m (£16m). Chief financial officer Todd Morgenfeld, however, received 812,500 in shares. Her compensation was adjusted after making a complaint, she said.

After raising the issue, Ms Brougher claims she was no longer invited to board meetings, was excluded from advertising team meetings and that rumours began to circle that she was falling out with employees for being too “assertive”.

She claimed that some of her team members were invited to meetings. On one occasion, she claimed, Mr Morgenfeld allegedly disparaged her in front of her peers by sarcastically asking her “what is your job anyway”.

In February, Mr Morgenfield sent her a performance review, even though she had not been asked to write him one. The only comment, the suit stated, under her 2019 achievements was “seems to be a champion for diversity”.

Ms Brougher requested a video call with Mr Morgenfield, which descended into an argument and with Mr Morgenfield allegedly calling her a liar.

Shortly after complaining to HR about the disagreement, Ms Brougher said she was asked to leave.

“Her experience is common to women and minorities who often do not have informal handshake relationships with their male colleagues and are regularly excluded from the rooms where decisions are made,” the suit stated.

Pinterest was not immediately available for comment.

Ms Brougher is being represented by the same lawyers used by Ellen Pao, who brought a high profile gender discrimination lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins in 2015. Pao lost the suit but has since been vocal about discrimination in Silicon Valley, creating Project Include.

Many US tech companies have committed to improving diversity within their ranks but have made slow progress both in executive teams and the rank-and-file engineers that build the software and products they sell.

In 2017, a blog post from former Uber employee Susan Fowler set off a tumultuous year for the company that eventually resulted in its founder and chief executive Travis Kalanick stepping down.