Media Guardian Newspaper: 'Overlooked for being a woman'

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2097944,00.html
Thursday June 7, 2007

Sky One boss Richard Woolfe did not want a woman to run his acquisitions department, a former Sky executive told an employment tribunal today. Samantha Rowden said she had been passed over for a newly amalgamated acquisitions role because of her sex.

"I can't see any other reason why, when I was doing a good job, had brought in great programmes, and we had worked together for such a short period of time," she said. "I can't think of anything else apart from the fact that I was a woman."

She said she believed that Mr Woolfe always intended to hand the new job to her colleague in the acquisitions department, David Smyth. "I believe the whole process was predetermined and David was chosen because he was a man, and the whole process was completely unfair," Ms Rowden told the tribunal in Croydon.

Asked why she felt she had been treated less favourably, Ms Rowden said she had been treated dismissively by Mr Woolfe. "I believe Richard was not interested in what I was doing within the department. He was very dismissive," she said. "The way Richard was behaving with David was very different from the way he was behaving with me."

Ms Rowden is alleging wrongful dismissal and sex discrimination over her departure from Sky in July last year. The company is contesting her claims. The tribunal continues.