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Bay Area technology firm Pinterest has agreed to pay its former chief operating officer and her lawyers $20 million to settle a gender-discrimination lawsuit.
Under the agreement with Françoise Brougher, the San Francisco digital-pinboard company, valued at $43 billion, will also spend $2.5 million to advance women and underrepresented communities in the tech industry, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday by Pinterest. The company in settling the case did not admit wrongdoing.
Brougher’s lawsuit, filed in August in San Francisco County Superior Court, noted that Pinterest “markets itself to women looking for inspiration.” The suit claimed the firm “brazenly” fired Brougher for pointing out gender bias.
In a September court filing, Pinterest denied all of Brougher’s claims, and said it had conducted itself in keeping with proper managerial discretion and business judgment.
According to the suit’s allegations, male Pinterest executives were rewarded for strong leadership styles but Brougher was criticized “for not being compliant or collaborative enough.” She was offered poorer compensation than her male peers and had to “fight for equal treatment,” the suit claimed.
When she complained about “demeaning sexist comments” from a senior executive and asked for help to fix the hostile work environment, she was fired in a video call “to protect the comfort of her male peers,” the suit alleged. “Ms. Brougher’s termination solidified Pinterest’s unwelcoming environment for women and minorities by imposing a high cost to challenging the men at the top,” the suit claimed.
Brougher, a former executive at Google and Charles Schwab, worked for Pinterest as chief operating officer from March 2018 until her termination in April 2020, according to the suit, which also accused Pinterest of wrongful termination and retaliation.
She was the company’s first chief operating officer. At the time of her hiring, Pinterest said in a statement that she would be “instrumental in bringing the company through its next phase of growth as it continues to expand its user base internationally and scale its global advertising program.”
Pinterest said in June it was hiring an outside legal team to probe its workplace culture after two female Black managers who quit said they had endured abuse and discrimination.
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