Judge blocks effort to expand Microsoft gender-bias case to thousands of women

A federal judge in Seattle denied a motion to broadly expand a gender-discrimination lawsuit against Microsoft, dealing a blow to a group of women suing the company who had hoped to add thousands of plaintiffs to the case.

The plaintiffs in the case, Moussouris v Microsoft, had been seeking permission from the judge to create a class-action suit. That would have made it possible for more than 8,000 women to join the case and potentially get damages from the company.

U.S. District Judge James Robart denied the class-action motion Monday, according to a docket report filed with the courts. The decision is sealed while Microsoft and the plaintiffs discuss what information needs to be redacted.

At a hearing earlier this month, Robart had tough questions for the women’s lawyers, asking whether there were strong enough similarities between the women’s cases to justify a class-action suit.

The lawsuit has been weaving its way through the court for more than two years, and alleges widespread gender discrimination at the Redmond tech company — saying that women in engineering roles were promoted and given raises at a slower rate than men in similar jobs.

It’s one of several similar lawsuits against big tech companies in recent years, all taking aim at an industry they allege favors white men over women and minorities.

A former Microsoft cybersecurity engineer, Katherine Moussouris, sued Microsoft in September 2015, claiming less-qualified men had been given raises and promotions over her. She was joined by two other plaintiffs in the case, and their lawyers had been trying to add thousands of other women in technical roles to the suit.

Microsoft has denied throughout the case that systemic gender discrimination is taking place within its employee reviews, which determine who gets promoted and who gets raises.