Sex Discrimination on Wall Street
Sex discrimination occurs when someone is treated differently on account of their gender. Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination. Recent reports on the declining number of women on Wall Street show that women are being treated differently, they are being replaced by men. As reported on Fin.com, Casualties of the Crisis: Stress, Sexism and Layoffs Thin the Ranks of Women on Wall Street.
In the past 10 years, 141,000 women, 2.6% of female workers in finance, disappeared from the industry, while the ranks of men in the industry grew by 389,000, or 9.6%, according to a review of data provided by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The discrepancy is particularly pronounced at brokerages, investment banks and asset management companies.
Ironically, while Wall Street has become more and more of a boys club, the number of sex discrimination and sex harassment charges has dropped. According to the EEOC, "the number of sexual harassment charges in finance, insurance and real estate has decreased by roughly half from 2005 to 2009 -- from 287 to 119." See Sex Harassment Still a Problem in Finance, Despite the Numbers. Why is that woman have stopped complaining while their jobs are being taken by men? New York Post Gossip Columnist Cindy Adams explained the reason recently when she said that women need to keep quiet and "learn to deal with it."
With good jobs hard to find, it may be that woman are more reluctant than ever to complain. At my employment law firm, we get less calls now about sex harassment and sex discrimination. Many of the women we speak to have accepted Cindy Adams advice, they have learned to deal with it. They accept that sex harassment and sex discrimination are part of life on Wall Street and they also know that complaints will only ruin their careers and not fix the problem.
The system frequently works against those who try to use it. I cannot tell you how many human resource people I have deposed or interviewed in cases with clear evidence of sex discrimination or sex harassment and the HR person says that their investigation found no signs of misconduct. Their investigations are designed to find no such evidence. If you get close to the process, you can see that the system is a really a joke. It is a rigged system designed to protect the company, not the employee. Does anyone really think that an investment firm is going to create a system designed to harm itself in favor of an employee?
Women cannot be blamed for taking Cindy Adam's advice. They are not being complacent. They just accept reality - they are not well protected by the law. The laws designed to protect women don't work. They need to be fixed. If they worked, Cindy Adams would not be telling women to just deal with it and we would not see statistics showing stark gender bias on Wall Street. Men discriminate against women on Wall Street because they can. Real change will not occur until laws with teeth are created.
