Goldman Sachs Sued for Sex Discrimination

UPDATE: The lawsuit documents have been added below (hat tip to the WSJ.)

Three former Goldman Sachs employees filed a gender bias lawsuit against the firm today, lamenting an "outdated corporate culture" run by, and catering to, men.

Plaintiff H. Christina Chen-Oster, a former vice president in convertible bonds, joined Shanna Orlich, a former associate in trading, and Lisa Parisi, a former managing director in asset management, in filing the suit in Federal Court in Manhattan. According to the New York Times and Reuters, they're taking action on behalf of all female managing directors, vice presidents and associate employees in the last six years.

But that's not as many people as it might seem. According to the NYT, the suit says women comprise only 17 percent of managing directors and 29 percent of vice presidents at Goldman. (Never mind partners, of which women are reportedly only 14 percent.)

The suit claims that Goldman pays women less than men, denies them promotions, gives them unfairly harsh feedback, blocks business opportunities and, according to the Wall Street Journal's summary, refuses to adequately train them.

It gets worse. Chen-Oster, says the WSJ, claims in the suit that a male colleague groped her after an office party at a topless bar in 1997. Reporting the harassment, she says, hurt her status at the company.

Orlich, who, the WSJ notes, holds a combined JD/MBA from Columbia and played on her high school's varsity golf team, says in the suit that a male senior analyst assigned her the demeaning tasks of setting up his Blackberry and fielding calls from his wife. When she wanted to go golfing with the firm, the boys said no.

A Goldman Sachs spokesperson told the WSJ that the suit is without merit.

As of this writing, the lawsuit is not yet available on the Public Access to Electronic Court Records website.

READ the summons:

Goldmansummonses091510

Comments

[T4]

10:43 AM on 10/20/2010

Since most of GS management is Jewish and all the megabanks (Shearson/Merrill/Citgroup/Chase/GS/etc.) are run by people being saying they are Jewish - perhaps this is an endemic cultural orientation. Maybe Obama can talk to his econ and fin team advisors - also almost exclusively jewish (Geithner, WEinberg, Bernake, etc.) who gave away $2 trilion so far to their culrual firends in the megabanks bailout that wrecked our economy and ask themt o change

[turamali]

09:44 AM on 09/16/2010

You go girls, take down the "Boys Club".

[es23]

10:27 PM on 09/15/2010

This seems pretty dubious. These women were pretty successful (managing director, VP) and yet they claim that there's some kind of systemic discrimination against them. They're also complaining about incidents that supposedly occurred way back in 1997. It all sounds a bit desperate. The big firms are all so politically correct these days that I wouldn't be at all surprised if they all have exemplary diversity stories going back at least a decade.

[inmyhumbleopinion]

09:10 PM on 09/15/2010

Goldman Sachs biased against women? Shocking!

This crap has been going on for decades on Wall Street. Read Susan Antilla's "Tales From the Boom-Boom Room" published in 2002. Will make your hair stand on end.

[Duppy]

08:54 PM on 09/15/2010

By the way, I have a MBA and most of the men I worked with did not. Women are totally discounted.

[Duppy]

08:52 PM on 09/15/2010

Thats the way Wall Street firms operate. I can attest to that fact. I had the same problem there. It is all about the white male and women are treated like dirt and treated as if they are stupid.

[vippy]

08:40 PM on 09/15/2010

Goldman Sachs is the cancer in our financial world.

[larmarch5]

08:10 PM on 09/15/2010

Uh-oh, Did ChOd bounce a check and think they said she banged a chick?

[Anthony Garnett]

04:05 PM on 09/15/2010

Goldman Sach is going to the poster child of the 2008-2011 Recession of how greed is good for those at the top of the food chain. Not one major player from Goldman Sach has been indicted on market manipulation charges in the US.

[maxhardon]

02:38 PM on 09/15/2010

The entire US needs to file a lawsut against goldman and demand that these crooks give us money back.

[KarolinaReiss]

02:25 PM on 09/15/2010

Not knowing the exact details of this lawsuit, I cannot comment on its merit but have to say this: people don't sue large corporations on a whim. Certain industries are known be be less women-friendly and there have been patterns of behavior amongst certain firms that raise flags. Every corporation needs to undergo a change of mindset (if it already hasn't) and recognize that gender bias is highly destructive: not just to employee morale but also to the stock price. Corporations with a more proportionate share of female executives have better stock performance because the actions driven by the testosterone exec-suite are more balanced. We have entered a new day and age where firms can no longer hide business practices and internal turmoil; The internet enables its employees to share their stories and conduct research and connect with others that may have experienced similar obstacles. From a PR perspective, Goldman Sachs has nothing more to lose. It can only get better if they actually try to understand their own actions and business practices and how they can improve upon them. As a social media and PR consultant to the financial industry, I see lack of effective two-way internal and external communication as Goldman Sachs's biggest obstacle at this point in time. www.reissomnimediagroup.com

[maxhardon]

02:34 PM on 09/15/2010

What's so hard to understand about this. Goldman is a bunch of crooks and if you have the chance to grab some of their money you should do it.

[maxhardon]

02:19 PM on 09/15/2010

I wish these women all the luck in the world. I hope they get their greedy little hands way down deep in Goldman's pockets and up with some big bucks.