Pinterest agrees to $22.5 million settlement in discrimination lawsuit

Enlarge / A Pinterest logo seen displayed on a smartphone. (credit: Mateusz Slodkowski | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images)

Pinterest has reached a major settlement with a former executive who filed a lawsuit alleging rampant gender discrimination after she was pushed out of her role at the firm, the company disclosed Monday afternoon.

Francoise Brougher served as Pinterest's chief operating officer from March 2018 until the company fired her in April of this year. In August, she filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging her dismissal had nothing to do with her performance and instead was an act of retaliation against her for complaining about discrimination she encountered inside the company.

While preparing Pinterest for its 2019 IPO, Brougher discovered that she had been deliberately misled about executive compensation at the firm and was being significantly underpaid compared to her male C-suite colleagues, her suit alleged. After she brought the discrepancy to the attention of Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann, she was systematically squeezed out of executive and board meetings and communications and as a result of that retaliation became unable to perform her job, she said.

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