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Three former Goldman Sachs employees filed a gender bias lawsuit against the firm today, lamenting an "outdated corporate culture" run by, and catering to, men.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