Seven months after a historic settlement between Goldman Sachs and a group of women who sued the financial giant for pay discrimination, not much seems to have changed on Wall Street. Serious challenges persist for women who work in finance. Women in North America held only 21% of senior leadership jobs in financial services in 2022 and of 15 industries in a recent survey, finance and insurance had the biggest average pay gaps. I wrote about these issues today for Capital & Main.
Tag Archives: Cristina Chen-Oster
Can Goldman Sachs’ Women Make the Cut at ‘Extreme Jobs?’
Here’s the latest in the long-running battle between Goldman Sachs and the women who sued the firm in 2010 for gender discrimination:
Both sides in recent weeks have filed dozens of briefs and exhibits, mostly focused on the women’s request earlier this year that the court grant them class status so that they can represent 2,300 current and former associates and vice presidents who allegedly were discriminated against in pay and promotion policies. Among issues that have come up: Whether women at so-called “extreme jobs” like the ones at Goldman simply can’t cut it.
Goldman trotted out Michael A. Campion, a Purdue University management professor, to make the case. While Campion testified that he did not have the data to draw a conclusion as to whether women make less because of the demands of an extreme job, he said it is “plausible” and that “it’s a consideration that’s not minor.” I talk about Campion’s theory in my column today for TheStreet Foundation.
Goldman Sachs Doesn’t Want to Be Known as Misogynist ‘Vampire Squid’
On July 3, Goldman, Sachs & Co. submitted a 74-page memorandum of law and declarations of 27 Goldman Sachs witnesses to Judge James C. Francis of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and to three women who are suing the firm for gender discrimination.
The high-profile case of Cristina Chen-Oster et al. v. Goldman, Sachs & Co. et al. has been going on since Chen-Oster and two other former Goldman women sued in 2010. On July 1, the women’s lawyers filed a brief asking the court to certify them as a class. I wrote about the heavily redacted document in this story for TheStreet.
On July 3, Goldman filed its response. But 16 days later, it still is not on the court docket.
As it turns out, Goldman has been at work redacting that document over the past two weeks, and you can’t help but wonder what it is that the firm is so hellbent on keeping from the public. I raised that question in my latest column for TheStreet. You can read it here.