Female Microsoft Employees Filed Hundreds Of Discrimination, Harassment Complaints From 2010 To 2016

New court documents showed that female Microsoft employees filed hundreds of sexual harassment or gender discrimination complaints over a recent six-year period. Between 2010 and 2016, women at the tech giant filed 238 complaints for poor treatment on the basis of their gender, Reuters reported.

The documents came to light as part of a lawsuit filed against Microsoft in 2015, alleging systemic gender bias at the Redmond, Washington-based company. The plaintiffs accused Microsoft of routinely passing over female employees for promotions or pay raises.

According to Reuters, 118 of those complaints were for gender discrimination, but only a single one was deemed “founded” by Microsoft human resources. Microsoft’s internal response to these allegations was called “lackluster” by the plaintiffs’ attorneys, who want to turn it into a class-action lawsuit covering thousands of women.

Microsoft insisted the problem was not serious or widespread enough to warrant a class-action lawsuit. The company went on to say these numbers should not be made public because it could discourage employees from making future complaints.

A Pew Research Center study published in January found that 50 percent of women in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) workplaces had experienced gender discrimination on the job. Thirty-six percent of women in the same study said sexual harassment was also a problem at work. Claims of gender discrimination were also high in non-STEM environments, with 41 percent of women in other fields reporting similar problems.

Microsoft reportedly spends $55 million per year to “promote diversity and inclusion." The company, however, has been accused of sexism in recent years. Microsoft reportedly hired dancers dressed as schoolgirls to entertain guests at its Game Developers Conference in 2016.

In December, Bloomberg reported on a female intern who had filed a police report and told Microsoft supervisors that she had been sexually assaulted by a male intern. Despite the allegations, the male intern was hired as a full-time employee.