Women at Activision Blizzard are complaining that their concerns have gone unheard at the executive level. An example of discrimination is the treatment of breastfeeding mothers at Blizzard (WoW, Overwatch, Diablo). The issue has long been neglected. The conditions were reportedly so poor that even breast milk was stolen from the refrigerator.
This is the situation:
- In July 2021, a government agency filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard. Initially, the lawsuit focused primarily on misconduct at Blizzard: women were reportedly paid less and treated worse than men.
- The lawsuit has continued to expand over the last 5 months: the President of Blizzard had to resign, and even the resignation of CEO Bobby Kotick was demanded by employees. NPCs disappeared from World of Warcraft, a character in Overwatch received a new name, and the company issued new policies.
- As a result of the scandal, some women left Blizzard or found the courage to share their stories publicly. Now, information is coming to light about how breastfeeding mothers were treated at Blizzard.
What was the problem for breastfeeding Jessica Gonzalez worked at Blizzard in Irvine as a test analyst from 2019 to 2021. Gonzalez is the founder of the “ABetterABK” group, which advocates for improvements at Activision Blizzard.
She shares on Twitter that breastfeeding mothers at Blizzard faced a variety of issues (via twitter):
- The chairs were wobbly and could not be adjusted to a suitable breastfeeding position. Many women reportedly sat on the floor to pump milk.
- The tables were made of wood and so porous that breast milk pooled and clumped in the cracks of the tables.
- The technical facilities of the rooms were too poor. There was no way to set up laptops so mothers could work or watch shows while pumping milk. There were too few outlets in the room, which were then occupied by lamps and pumps. The situation was also dangerous for fire safety reasons.
- Insufficient storage space was provided, with no lockable containers available to securely store the pumps. Women had to carry the pumps across campus multiple times a day.
- The refrigerators for breast milk had curtain locks that were accessible to other staff. Some used the refrigerators to keep their beers cold. The curtain locks were only installed because breast milk had reportedly been stolen.
- The rooms were not maintained in good sanitary condition. It did not appear that the rooms for breastfeeding mothers were maintained by the cleaning staff in the same way as other areas.
Breast milk suddenly went missing – devastating experience
Another former employee of Blizzard, Stephnaie Krutsick, also recounts that her breast milk suddenly went missing. There were no other mothers present at the time, and only a few women worked in the departments then. Only her milk was stolen; other items in the refrigerator were still there.
She says someone must have either thrown the milk away or stolen it for “creepy reasons.” For her, it was a devastating experience.
She felt discriminated against because the male supervisors did not understand that she could not always be physically present. As a result, she lost some tasks.
We have examined the escalating situation surrounding Activision Blizzard and CEO Bobby Kotick with MeinMMO:
What follows from this? For the women at Blizzard, the situation of breastfeeding mothers is an example of the culture at Blizzard, which is so male-dominated that the concerns of women are disregarded. Change is necessary.
As an example of a step that Activision Blizzard has already taken, the games from Blizzard have been examined for content that is no longer deemed appropriate:
After the sexism scandal: WoW replaces half-naked woman with fruit
