SEATTLE — Women suing Microsoft alleging widespread gender discrimination will get another chance to convince a court that their claims should be considered together as a class, after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to hear an appeal of a lower-court decision.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are seeking to add to the case more than 8,600 women who have worked in engineering jobs at the company, making it a class-action suit. U.S. District Judge James Robart denied the class-action motion in June, saying there were not strong enough similarities between the women’s claims to prove company-wide bias practices.