Sheena Iyengar says as a blind professor she “was being perpetually bullied by my employee”
Sheena Iyengar, a Columbia Business School professor and the best-selling author of “Art of Choosing,” has been sued by one of her “research associates” for allegedly assigning her demeaning “female” jobs like applying her makeup and booking restaurants.
Elizabeth Blackwell, a graduate in psychology, says she began working as a “research associate” for Iyengar in 2017 after an intensive five-month interview process, according to media reports citing a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
But Iyengar, 52, “insisted” Blackwell perform duties that included “personal and supportive administrative and secretarial tasks,” the complaint filed on Feb 1 this year says.
“These tasks included applying Iyengar’s makeup and booking restaurants for her romantic dates,” Blackwell told Washington Square News (WSN) in an interview.
Accusing the Indian American professor of practicing “disturbing gender-based discrimination behavior and retaliation,” Blackwell also claims she assigned many of her research duties to a male co-worker because “she was a ‘woman.’”
Iyengar — who is blind and rose to fame as a result of her TED Talks — effectively switched Blackwell’s research position with the male co-worker, even though the responsibilities she assigned him fell outside of his program coordinator job description.
Blackwell was assigned to “personal and supportive” tasks since they were “better suited” for the “female gender,” according to the complaint. At one point, she said Iyengar tried to set her up on dates, which she found “extremely upsetting.”
Iyengar reportedly told Blackwell that she was “lucky” to have been hired since she was a woman when she confronted her about the lack of research tasks. She was also told that she “would have been out on [her] ass a long time ago” if she was a man.
Shortly after, Iyengar complained to Columbia that she was being harassed by Blackwell. Iyengar told WSN she had promoted Blackwell “at every step,” and that there was a “no fit” between their interests, but that she would write her a letter of recommendation.
“If there was discrimination in this office, it was, it is, the discrimination that I felt as a blind professor who was being perpetually bullied by my employee and does not accommodate the very needs of this position,” Iyengar said.
Iyengar, did not respond to requests for comment, but she has previously spoken about the difficulties of navigating the world as a blind person, WSN said.
“I cannot use an iPhone, I cannot use a BlackBerry and those are disadvantages,” Iyengar was quoted as saying in an interview in 2016.
“I do need humans in the sense that I have to constantly call in when I am abroad and check with my assistant who has to read me my emails over the phone.”
Having lost her father to a heart attack when she was 13, Iyengar became completely blind by the time she was 16. Her sister nine years younger to her is also blind.
A Sikh woman who was married to an Iyengar before their divorce, she taught at MIT’s Sloan School of Management in the late 1990s before moving to Columbia Business School, where she became a full professor in July 2007.
Her book The Art of Choosing (2010), which explores the mysteries of choice in everyday life, was shortlisted for the 2010 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.
Read: Blind Indian-American Professor sued for gender discrimination by Columbia Business School alumnus – Know more (November 28, 2022)
Andrew Schilling, one of the two attorneys representing Iyengar and Columbia, declined to comment, according to WSN. A response to Blackwell’s complaint will be filed by January 2023, according to court documents.
Columbia launched an investigation into both allegations and submitted a final report, but Blackwell said most of the details about the gender discrimination she experienced were disregarded and that no action was taken. “It became very clear to me at that point that they weren’t willing to support me,” Blackwell said.
The university terminated Blackwell’s contract in January 2019 due to a lack of funding — despite her position being funded through June 2019. Her attorney, David DeToffol, called this decision “retaliatory.”