Twitter sued for targeting women and staff on family leave in layoffs

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In photos taken before and after Twitter's mass layoffs, it appeared to many that Musk's widespread downsizing had dramatically reduced the number of women on Twitter's staff. Now women fired by Twitter have filed a class action lawsuit, alleging Musk violated employment laws by firing far more women than men.

"Women on Twitter never had a decent chance of being treated fairly once Elon Musk decided to buy the company," said attorney representing the women suing, Shannon Liss- Riordan, in a press release provided to Ars. "Instead, they had goals on their backs and regardless of their talent and contributions, they were more likely to lose their jobs than men."

The lead plaintiffs in the class action are Miami-based Carolina Bernal Strifling, who worked at Twitter for seven years, and California-based Willow Wren Turkal, an engineer who joined Twitter in 2021 after four years at Facebook and LinkedIn. They are suing Twitter "on their own behalf and on behalf of other female Twitter employees across the country who have been terminated or constructively terminated from their jobs in the chaotic weeks since multi-billionaire Elon Musk bought the company." .

Their complaint cites calculations provided by Mark Killingsworth, professor of economics at Rutgers University, to allege that, overall, "57% of female employees were terminated on November 4, 2022, while 47% of male employees were fired.”

This disparity, according to the complaint, "cannot be explained on the basis of a rationale that Musk intended to retain more employees in engineering-related roles." Killingsworth estimated that Musk fired 63% of female employees in engineering-related roles, compared to 48% of male employees in engineering-related roles.

Musk's own tweets are cited in the complaint as evidence of alleged sexism on Twitter. The complaint points to a tweet that Musk deleted, naming a school using the acronym "TITS," as well as a more recent tweet, where the billionaire said, "Testosterone rock ngl." The complaint also relates to news articles from PC Mag and Futurism discussing the impact of Musk's alleged misogyny on the women who work for him.

Alleging that Musk's firings violated Title VII protections prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, the women suing have sought a jury trial. They seek "lost back wages, severance, benefits, bonuses, and lost equity, as well as damages for emotional distress, punitive damages, interest, and any other appropriate relief." They also want the court to force Twitter to reinstate employees who want to return to work.

Twitter did not immediately respond to Ars' request for comment.

Other allegations of discrimination

In addition to allegedly firing more women than men, the class action lawsuit alleges that Musk discriminated against female employees in other ways.

The complaint alleges that when Musk asked employees to agree to work in the office 24/7 or voluntarily leave their jobs, "Musk would certainly have known that these policy changes and expectations would have a disproportionate impact on women, who are more often caregivers for children and other family members, and therefore unable to comply with these demands.”

On the same day, the women filed their class action lawsuit, disabled employees and employees on family or medical leave affected by the layoffs also filed a class action lawsuit, represented by Liss-Riordan. Their complaint alleges that Twitter violated the...