Women's Issues 

Activision Blizzard sued by California over constant abuse of women employees | Boing Boing

Game giant Activision Blizzard is being sued by the state of California, whose lawsuit details a horrifying environment characterized by the constant harassment of women, rape jokes, threats, retaliation, racism and blatant discrimination. At one point Activision Blizzard is described as a "frat house", but that doesn't begin to capture the scale and gravity of the allegations. Women punished for becoming pregnant. Women kicked out of lactation rooms. Women punished for leaving the office. African American women denied full employment and subjected to unique requirements. A woman committed suicide on a business trip with a male colleague who brought along lube and butt plugs.

In the office, women are subjected to "cube crawls" in which male employees drink copious [amounts] of alcohol as they "crawl" their way through various cubicles in the office and often engage in inappropriate behavior toward female employees. Male employees proudly come into work hungover, play video games for long periods of time during work while delegating their responsibilities to female employees, engage in banter about their sexual encounters, talk openly about female bodies and joke about rape.

Female employees are subjected to constant sexual harassment, including having to continually fend off unwanted sexual comments and advances by their male co-workers and supervisors and being groped at the "cube crawls" and other company events. High-ranking executives and creators engaged in blatant sexual harassment without repercussions.

In a particularly tragic example, a female employee committed suicide during a business trip with a male supervisor who had brought butt plugs and lubricant with him on the trip.

Activision Blizzard's never done much to hide its reactionary corporate culture. Just months ago it made clear that improving its hiring diversity was "unworkable". Its response to this lawsuit is libertarian dogma about "irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State's best businesses out of California."

They say you can only fix a problem from the inside out. But this is a problem to be fixed from the outside in.