College student sues blind Indian-American professor for only giving her “female jobs”.

New Delhi:

A Columbia University alumnus has accused her former professor, best-selling author of Indian descent, Sheena Iyengar, of sex discrimination.

According to the New York Post, Elizabeth Blackwell, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Columbia University in 2017, has accused Ms. Iyengar, who is blind, of assigning her degrading “lady” jobs, such as applying her makeup and booking restaurants.

“These duties include applying Iyengar’s make-up and booking restaurants for her romantic dates,” Ms Blackwell said.

Ms Blackwell, who filed a lawsuit against Ms Iyengar, claimed in her complaint that she was given “personal and supportive” duties because they were “better suited” to the “female gender”.’ In comparison, Mrs. Blackwell’s male counterpart “experienced none of the obstacles that Mrs. Blackwell had to overcome.”

In her lawsuit, Ms Blackwell accused the professor of “disturbingly discriminatory conduct and gender-based retaliation”. She alleged that Ms. Iyengar had assigned investigative duties to a male colleague, despite those duties being unrelated to his job description.

Ms. Iyengar is on the faculty of Columbia Business School and is also the author of the bestseller “The Art Of Choose.” Ms Blackwell’s contract with the university was terminated in 2019. When she made a complaint, Ms Iyengar responded by saying that it was she who was “constantly bullied”.

“If there was any discrimination in this office, it was the discrimination I felt as a blind professor who was constantly bullied by my employee and does not meet the needs of this position,” Ms. Iyengar had said.

Ms Blackwell claimed that she found it difficult to find a job after her contract ended and that she was dealing with various mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and insomnia.