Ten Women Accuse Walt Disney Company of Gender Discrimination

By Hazel Cills  |  September 19, 2019 | 1:40pm
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Ten Women Accuse Walt Disney Company of Gender Discrimination
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In April, two former Disney employees filed a lawsuit against Walt Disney Studios alleging pay discrimination, with one woman finding out she was making between $16,000 to $40,000 less than six men who had the same job. In July four more women joined the lawsuit, widening the scope of the company’s gender discrimination to its theme parks and music label. Plaintiffs argued that Disney repeatedly denies women promotions and gives them lower salaries than men, the Guardian reported at the time.

Now, the Guardian reports, four more women have joined the suit, bringing the number up to ten women total, six of whom are women of color. They claim discrimination not just at Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures but also at Disney’s music label, finance department, and ABC Television’s music department. One woman says that even though performance reviews of her work at Disney’s film studio claimed she was working at a “Vice President level” despite her being a senior manager, HR refused to promote her. The company previously claimed the lawsuit was “without merit.”

The lawsuit also arrives after Disney shuttered Fox 2000, a studio responsible for films like The Fault In Our Stars and The Devil Wears Prada and run largely by women including film executive Elizabeth Gabler. “It’s…demoralizing and emotionally draining,” said Nancy Dolan, one of the new plaintiffs, in a statement to the Guardian. “It’s time for Disney to join the dozens of California companies who have pledged to pay their women workers fairly.”

 
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