twitter is being sued by a former female engineer who claims she was overlooked for promotion in favour of her male colleagues tina huang's proposed class action for sex discrimination comes as male dominated silicon valley has been rocked by two other high profile lawsuits in the complaint, filed in san francisco on thursday, miss huang has accused the microblogging site of discriminating against women in the way it promotes its employees in the papers, she claims the firm has no formal procedure for posting job vacancies or granting promotions twitter is being sued by a former female engineer tina huang for gender discrimination  instead, she says the company relies  on a secretive 'shoulder tap' process that allows few women to achieve the top engineering positions in the legal papers miss huang allegedly argues that 79 per cent of twitter's leadership team is male, according to mashable miss hiss huang complained to twitter ceo dick costolo, pictured  miss hunag is one of twitter's oldest employees after joining the firm in october 2009 she was put on leave after she raised a grievance with ceo dick costolo about her lack of promotion and quit in june 2014 'despite being one of twitter's oldest employees, ms huang's career at twitter was irreparably derailed for making a complaint, court documents says, according to business insider 'after three months without explanation as to the status of the investigation, or mention of any possible time frame for her return to work, she felt she had no choice but to leave the company for the sake of her career' she is now seeking other employees at the firm who feel they have been passed over for promotion to join her in the lawsuit a spokesman for twitter said miss huang had resigned and was not forced out 'twitter is deeply committed to a diverse and supportive workplace, and we believe the facts will show ms huang was treated fairly,' they said miss huang started her legal action as the case was being heard of ellen pao, a former partner at venture capital firm kleiner perkins caulfield and byers, who is suing for sexual discrimination during the high profile trial in san francisco she has claimed she was passed over for promotion because she is a woman she alleges that she was fired in 2012 after she complained the firm deny her claims of sexual discrimination and harassment at the weekend a judge denied a request by lawyers for kleiner perkins caufield & byers to have pao's demand for unspecified punitive damages thrown out judge harold kahn said: 'there is sufficient evidence from which a reasonable juror could conclude that kleiner perkins engaged in intentional gender discrimination by failing to promote ms pao and terminating her employment,' the judge said in the one paragraph decision pao can seek punitive damages that could add millions of dollars to a possible verdict in her favour she is seeking $16 million in lost wages and bonuses meanwhile, facebook is also facing a lawsuit from former employee and program manager chia hong according to the complaint she has filed with san mateo court, she was belittled by her boss for taking time off to volunteer at her children's school, forced to served drinks to male co workers and told she should have just stayed home to take care of her child ellen pao, a former partner at kleiner perkins caufield & byers, pictured left, and chia hong, a former facebook employee, pictured right,  have put the spot light on gender discrimination in silicon valley  a facebook spokesperson denied the allegations and told recode that the company has made progress in matters related to gender, diversity, and equality 'in this case we have substantive disagreements on the facts,' the spokesperson said 'and we believe the record shows the employee was treated fairly'
twitter silicon valley tina huang
female engineer tina huang is suing twitter for gender discrimination  claims she was overlooked for promotion in favour of male colleagues  says the silicon valley firm has no formal procedure for promotions  and alleges there was a 'shoulder tap' process that favoured men  twitter says it is committed to diversity and that she was treated fairly  comes as silicon valley rocked by two other high profile lawsuits 