BHP’s strategy for women to comprise 50 per cent of its workforce by 2025 has been labelled a “systemic pattern of top-down sex discrimination” in a US lawsuit filed by a former male employee who was earmarked by the company as a future leader.

BHP has vowed to defend the claim for punitive damages, which was filed in a Texas court by Burak Powers, a former manager within BHP’s Houston petroleum office and inductee into the company’s “future emerging leaders program”.