Earlier this month, Google executive Ulku Rowe became the first person to face Google in court over sexist discrimination since a 2018 mass walkout led the company to stop forcing employees to settle such matters privately. A Manhattan jury rendered its verdict last week, finding that Google had discriminated against Rowe on the basis of her gender and retaliated after she objected to the mistreatment.
Rowe says the verdict represents the culmination of years of Googlers pushing back against their employer’s behavior, and she hopes it will be a first step toward greater equity at the company.
“I was able to bring this lawsuit because of the steps that many, many people took before me,” she says, citing the 20,000 people who participated in the 2018 walkout, fueled in part by dissatisfaction with the company’s handling of sexual harassment claims and demanding an end to forced arbitration, among other issues. Rowe hopes her case will be seen as “a catalyst for others” to stand up against discrimination.
Rowe, a financial technology exec with more than two decades of experience, alleged that when Google hired her in 2017 as a technical director in its Cloud unit, it assigned her a lower level and salary then equally or less qualified male colleagues, costing her hundreds of thousands of dollars and restricting her career.
After Rowe raised the issue internally, she was labeled “abrasive,” excluded from meetings, passed over for a promotion for which she was qualified, and ultimately demoted, according to her legal filings. Rowe’s lawyer Cara Greene, a partner at the firm Outten and Golden, calls retaliation just as harmful as discrimination because it “kills people’s willingness to come forward about discrimination.”
The jury found that Google treated Rowe unfairly because of her gender and retaliated against her after she complained. But it did not find in favor of Rowe’s claim that Google violated New York labor law by paying her less than two higher-level male colleagues who performed similar work. The court ordered Google to pay Rowe $150,000 for emotional distress and $1 million in punitive damages. Greene says that Rowe’s legal team plans to bring a motion for injunctive relief, meaning the court could order Google to take a specific action, such as adjusting Rowe’s level.
Read the full article here
