Yahoo Sued for Lesbian Sexual Harassment

Though it probably happens often, it’s rare to hear cases of sexual harassment in the media where the woman is the alleged harasser. Especially so when the plaintiff is also a woman. The senior director of engineering at Yahoo, Maria Zhang, is being accused of sexual harassment by her former subordinate, Nan Shi. Shi is suing Yahoo and Zhang for both sexual harassment and wrongful termination.

Shi says Zhang coerced her into having both oral and digital sex — promising that if she did so, she’d have a bright future at Yahoo. Shi claims that once she refused to have sex with Zhang, Zhang pulled her from project lead and gave her poor performance reviews. Zhang also allegedly threatened to fire Shi and take away her non-vested stock shares if she did not do what was asked of her, including working long hours.

Shi made a complaint to Yahoo’s HR department and was immediately put on unpaid leave, before eventually being terminated. Meanwhile, nothing happened to Zhang.

A representative from Yahoo states “There is absolutely no basis or truth to the allegations against Maria Zhang. Maria is an exemplary Yahoo executive and we intend to fight vigorously to clear her name.”

Zhang is currently countersuing Shi for defamation, saying she made the entire story up to save her job and to avoid losing her stock.

How often do you think women engage in sexual harassment in the workplace? Do you believe the employee’s accusations? Leave your opinion in the comments below.