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Employees of a German bank in New York City have filed a sex discrimination lawsuit seeking about $1.4 billion in damages.
The suit accuses Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein Securities LLC of knowingly engaging in sexual discrimination in its hiring, firing, promotion and corporate culture. German banking corporation Allianz AG owns the bank.
The lawsuit outlines several statistics that are troubling especially considering that sex discrimination is still a problem in the workplace throughout the world . At the bank some 1.6% of women are managing directors, compared to 15% of men, for example. The lawsuit seeks class action status and was filed by six employees of the company on behalf of all female workers.
Some of the details of the suit showed gross discrimination and other obvious violations of discrimination laws. One woman, Jyoti Ruta, said she was asked and encouraged to leave a dinner celebrating the closing of a deal so that the other men could go to a strip club together. Katherine Smith detailed a series of vulgar comments and other verbal abuse that happened to her while at work. Other incidents involved suggestive comments, prostitutes coming into the office, and hiring practices suggesting a bias toward certain physical types of women.
The lawsuit has shaken up the notion that sexual equality in the workforce, particularly in the corporate world, is getting better.