Another plaintiff, former senior HR manager Bethany Riches, was told by a Dell vice president in an e-mail that she shouldn't assume it was her fault if she had problems "breaking into arguably one of the toughest old boy networks," according to the suit. After Riches complained of sex discrimination, a male supervisor allegedly told her that her promotion was "never going to happen at Dell." Riches later resigned.

On a section of its Web site about , Dell says that "women and people of color" account for more than half of its U.S. workforce, and 32 percent of its U.S.-based vice presidents. It also says that one-third of its global workforce are women.

"Dell does not tolerate discrimination in any aspect of employment and will vigorously defend [against] any claims that we are not acting in accordance with the law or our policies," David Frink, a Dell spokesman, said on Thursday.