By Yepoka Yeebo
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Goldman Sachs is being sued for gender discrimination by three former female employees who say they were unfairly denied promotions and raises, according to news reports.
The lawsuit claims that male employees were paid and promoted more than female employees and seeks class-action status for all female managing directors, vice presidents and associates for the last six years, the New York Post reported.
"Goldman Sachs has distributed the benefits of its enormous success unequally — systematically favoring male professionals at the expense of their female counterparts," the lawsuit said. "At nearly all levels of its management ranks, it has paid its female professionals less than similarly sutated male professionals, even though they hold equivalent positions and perform the same or substantially similar work with similar or in some cases superior results."
Of the vice presidents at Goldman, only 29 percent were women, the lawsuit said citing figures from the Wall Street firm. Seventeen percent of managing directors were women, as were just 14 percent of partners.
Christina Chen-Oster, one of the women in the lawsuit, said she was sexually assaulted after a company dinner to celebrate a male employee's promotion. The party ended up at Scores, the notorious topless bar. Chen-Oster said a married male associate asked to walk her home and when they got there, he kissed and groped her, the lawsuit said, and she had to fight him off.
Stock picker Lisa Parisi said she took a 60 percent pay cut over two years, even as she continued to perform her job well, Reuters reported.
Shanna Orlich, a former associate in trading, said she was excluded from attending a golf outing because she was too "junior," even though younger male colleagues were invited.
Their lawsuit seeks unspecified cash damages, including back pay for the salaries they say they should have earned, and an end to discriminatory practices at the Wall Street titan.
“The violations of its female employees' rights are systemic, are based upon companywide policies and practices, and are the result of unchecked gender bias that pervades Goldman Sachs's corporate culture,” the lawsuit says.
The three women are also preparing a class-action law suit on behalf of other women who have worked at the firm as managing directors, vice presidents and associates over the past six years.
Their lawyer, Kelly Dermody, said their experiences reflect a broader bias against women working at the country's largest financial institutions.
"Wall Street doesn't get it," Dermody said, according to Reuters.
She added, "Even as some [women] do crack the glass ceiling, Wall Street continues to pay them less, relegate them to jobs that have less upside potential, and exclude them from important clients and business opportunities."
Goldman spokesman Lucas van Praag told Reuters that the lawsuit was baseless.
"People are critical to our business, and we make extraordinary efforts to recruit, develop and retain outstanding women professionals," he said.
