Sexism charges rock bank (Merrill Lynch)

[CShine]

A Sydney lawyer, Elizabeth Weston, has emerged in London as the latest woman to take on an international battle against investment giant Merrill Lynch on the grounds that it discriminates against women.

London-based Mrs Weston, 29, who left Sydney to work for Merrill Lynch, is suing the company in a new development to the "Sexism in the City" scandal which has set London's business district alight.

The company is still dealing with actions from more than a thousand female brokers in the United States arguing that it is systemically sexist, and is currently facing a $20 million British lawsuit, London's largest ever, from Stephanie Villalba, a senior female banker who claims she was humiliated, underpaid and sacked as a result of her gender.

Mrs Weston is alleging that a senior male colleague publicly critiqued her breasts at an office lunch and asked other men at the table to imagine her masturbating, in a legal action which could run into the millions.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/19/1087595782310.html?oneclick=true

[markses]

1. Sexism in finance? Get outta here!

File this under "tell me something I didn't know when I woke up this morning."

I once saw the CFO for an issuing company chastise a second-year female attorney (who happened to be very pregnant at the time) to get out of the business, "because it's not right for your child - or your husband." She was reworking a document for him at the time. We looked at each other in the conference room; we were floored, but what are you gonna say to the client? And he otherwise seemed normal.

[jdj]

2. Latency is everywhere.

"Class Action" about sexual harassment at a Kentucky mining company, is a book that stunned me, the women who were harassed were further victimized because of the union mandate that they could not rat on their "union brothers". The suit went on for something like 25 yrs, it just got settled in the 90's.

It's that odd wrinkle in perception that the human brain has, the sexualitization of the harassement hides somehow the hatred underneath, and seems to obfuscate the civil rights violation. But underneath it is pure hatred; girlie magazines are cheap, and so are hookers, heck, Neil Bush got his hookers free. This is some other element of spite.

[NashVegas]

3. Just Good Old Boys Having Fun

wink wink nudge nudge