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‘Female-only jobs’: Student sues blind Indian-American professor

A Columbia University graduate accused best-selling author Sheena Iyengar of gender discrimination. Iyengar is of Indian descent. Elizabeth Blackwell, who obtained a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Columbia University in 2017, has reportedly accused Ms. Iyengar, who is blind, of giving her demeaning ‘female’ tasks like doing her cosmetics and making reservations, according to the New York Post.

‘These duties included doing Iyengar’s cosmetics and making reservations for romantic places’, according to Ms. Blackwell. In her case against Ms Iyengar, Ms Blackwell claimed that she was assigned ‘personal and supporting’ responsibilities because they were ‘more suited’ for the ‘female gender’. Contrarily, the male counterpart of Ms. Blackwell ‘encountered none of the difficulties that Ms. Blackwell was compelled to surmount’.

Ms. Blackwell charged the professor with ‘disturbing gender-based discriminating conduct and retribution’ in her complaint. She alleged that despite the fact that a male coworker’s job description did not pertain to research, Ms. Iyengar nonetheless gave him the assignment. The best-selling book ‘The Art Of Choosing’ was written by Ms. Iyengar, who is a member of the Columbia Business School faculty. 2019 saw the end of Ms. Blackwell’s employment agreement with the institution. Ms. Iyengar stated that she was being ‘perpetually bullied’ in her response to her complaint.

According to Ms. ‘Iyengar, ‘If there was discrimination in my workplace, it was, it is, the prejudice that I felt as a blind professor who was constantly tormented by my staff and does not suit the very necessities of this position’. Ms. Blackwell said that once her contract was terminated, she struggled to find employment and suffered from a variety of mental health-related problems, including sadness, anxiety, and sleeplessness.

 

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