Rocked by a flurry of high-profile sex discrimination lawsuits in the 1990s, Wall Street was supposed to have cleaned up its act. It hasn't. "Selling Women Short" is a powerful new indictment of how America's financial capital has swept enduring discriminatory practices under the rug. Wall Street is supposed to be a citadel of pure economics, paying for performance and evaluating performance objectively. People with similar qualifications and performance should receive similar pay, regardless of gender. They don't. Comparing the experiences of men and women who began their careers on Wall Street in the late 1990s, Louise Roth finds not only that women earn an average of 29 per cent less - but also that they are shunted into less lucrative career paths, are not promoted, and are denied the best clients. "Selling Women Short" reveals the subtle structural discrimination that occurs when the unconscious biases of managers, coworkers, and clients influence performance evaluations, work distribution, and pay inequality. In their own words, Wall Street workers describe how factors such as the preference to associate with those of the same gender contribute to systematic inequality. Revealing how the very systems that Wall Street established ostensibly to combat discrimination promote inequality, "Selling Women Short" closes with Roth's frank advice on how to tackle the problem, from introducing more tangible performance criteria to curbing gender-stereotypical client entertaining activities. Above all, firms could stop pretending that market forces lead to fair and unbiased outcomes. They don't.
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
CHAPTER 1: The Playing Field: Wall Street in the 1990s 11
CHAPTER 2: Pay for Performance: Wall Street's Bonus System 36
CHAPTER 3: A Woman's Worth: Gender Differences in Compensation 58
CHAPTER 4: Making the Team: Managers, Peers, and Subordinates 71
CHAPTER 5: Bringing Clients Back In: The Impact of Client Relationships 100
CHAPTER 6: Having It All? Workplace Culture and Work-Family Conflict 118
CHAPTER 7: Window Dressing: Workplace Policies and Wall Street Culture 148
CHAPTER 8: Beating the Odds: The Most Successful Women 167
CHAPTER 9: The Myth of Meritocracy: Gender and Performance-Based Pay 179
APPENDIX A: Methodology 197
APPENDIX B: Quantitative Measures and Models 205
APPENDIX C: Interview Schedule 213
Notes 237
References 253
Index 265