Augmented Reality Company Magic Leap Settles Sex Discrimination Suit With Former Employee

Virtual reality company Magic Leap has settled a sexual discrimination lawsuit with former executive Tannen Campbell who alleged executives ignored and brushed aside persistent issues with sexual harassment and bullying among male employees at the company.

In the suit, Campbell said she was fired from Magic Leap after confronting CEO Rony Abovitz about the company’s work culture. A notice of settlement was filed earlier this week and the case is expected to be fully settled by June 2.

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The suit also highlights several instances of harassment and sexism by Magic Leap employees. Among the excerpts from the suit was the description of an IT training session for new employees:

"Euen Thompson, an IT Support Lead, on Nov. 16, 2016, gave a tutorial to a group of seven new hires, including two women, how to use Magic Leap’s IT equipment and resources. One woman asked Thompson a question in front of the group and Thompson responded, 'Yeah, women always have trouble with computers.'

"The women in the group, in apparent disbelief, asked Thompson to repeat what he said and Thompson replied, 'In IT we have a saying: Stay away from the Three Os: Orientals, Old People and Ovaries.' "

Elsewhere, the suit says this attitude carried over to Leap’s development process:

"One of the only three or four core apps that will ship on Magic Leap’s standard headset is a game, 'Dr. G.,' that has no female heroes or lead characters and the one female character, who is in the game backstory, but not the game itself, is a busty woman depicted on her knees groveling at the heroes’ feet in admiration.

"During her tenure with Magic Leap, Campbell complained repeatedly and to no avail to the game’s developer that the game was misogynistic, and included the game in her gender diversity deck as an example of what Magic Leap was doing wrong."

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The suit also states Magic Leap executives would make similar statements in the office:

"Campbell met Sept. 28, 2016, with Magic Leap CFO Henry and Head of Operations Tina Tuli for a conference call with the CFO and leadership team at R/GA, an award-winning international advertising agency that was Magic Leap’s advertising agency of record.

"During the call, Henry said of the product under development, 'I’m sitting here between two beautiful ladies. They’re not going to want to put a big ugly device over their pretty faces. And I have an office with glass doors, I don’t want people to see me with these beautiful girls with ugly things on their faces.' Later, one of the male R/GA executives on the call asked Campbell if Henry frequently made sexist comments like he had made. A female executive at R/GA also was offended by Henry’s remarks."

With an estimated valuation of around $4.5 billion, Magic Leap has garnered significant attention thanks to its touted augmented reality product. The company also announced a partnership last year with Disney that’ll potentially see its products be used in Star Wars parks and attractions. However, the company has reportedly been delayed by development setbacks, the Information reported.

Check out the full suit below: