![]() ![]() In 2019, 60% of the female financial advisors surveyed by Investment News said they’d been sexually harassed on the job. Critical to fixing the problem is getting more women in the top jobs in finance, and establishing a system where sexual harassers are exposed and punished, not protected.įor decades, Wall Street firms have forced aggrieved employees to use closed-door arbitration instead of the public courts, keeping appalling behavior and evidence of pay and promotion discrimination mostly out of public view. The suit was settled, with Smith Barney paying out $150 million, according to the women’s lawyers.Ī quarter of a century after what became known as “the Boom Boom Room” lawsuit, Wall Street still has a long way to go in giving women the respect they deserve. The women also claimed that they were paid less than their male colleagues and weren’t promoted as frequently. Their complaint described a branch office where it was acceptable for men to refer to their female colleagues as “b*tches” and “c*nts” where the boss bellowed to the troops at an office Christmas party that the branch was “the biggest whorehouse in Garden City” and where male brokers would assemble in a basement party room dubbed “the Boom Boom Room” to drink, party and engage in vulgar talk. ![]() Twenty-five years ago this month, three women at a Long Island branch of financial industry giant Smith Barney filed an explosive class-action sexual harassment lawsuit. ![]()
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