Feminist group calls for Nadella's head over sexist gaffe

Microsoft CEO said women should rely on karma to get a pay rise but later said he was 'completely wrong'

An anti-sexism campaign group has called on Microsoft to fire its chief executive after he claimed last week that women should not ask for pay rises.

During an interview at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing event last week, Nadella implied that women ought to rely on karma to get more pay and simply have "faith in the system".

He later totally backtracked on the comments and sent a company-wide email to his staff saying he answered the question "completely wrong". In the note he said he did, in fact, believe women should ask for a raise if they feel they deserve one and that men and women should be paid equally.

But the U-turn was not enough to satisfy US-based campaign group UltraViolet, which has launched a petition to get Nadella (pictured) pushed out.

The group – which aims to fight sexism in business and has more than 550,000 online members – called for Nadella's head.

"It is shameful that Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella would tell women – especially in an industry that already has a serious problem recruiting and retaining female talent – not to ask for raises," said UltraViolet's co-founder Nita Chaudhary.

"Wage discrimination costs women and their families close to half a million dollars over their lifetime."

The pressure group was quick to start a petition calling for the software giant to take action against its CEO.

"Tell Microsoft's board of directors ‘karma' won't fix the wage gap, and Microsoft should be a leader in fighting sexism in tech, not part of the problem. Fire Satya Nadella," the petition reads.

Local press in Seattle – which is close to Microsoft's corporate HQ – ran a poll gauging locals' opinions of Nadella's comments. Of the near-2,000 respondents, 31 per cent said they believe Nadella should resign.

Another 41 per cent said his comments revealed a "deep bias" in the industry, but another 29 per cent said they were either unsure or thought his comments should be let go.