Taking a page from this guy’s playbook.
By Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.
For more than a year now, powerful men across every industry have been brought down by revelations they sexually harassed or assaulted women at work. For the ones left standing, learning what constitutes appropriate workplace behavior has been a necessary part of hanging onto their jobs. For people, like, say, Harvey Weinstein or Matt Lauer—both of whom deny any wrongdoing!—this exercise would be akin to learning to walk again after a horrible accident paralyzed half their bodies. But for normal people who are not life-long sexual predators, it actually shouldn’t be that difficult to identify as bad things like rape, unwanted touching, asking employees out on dates, commenting on colleagues’ appearances, promising raises or promotions for sexual favors, and so on. But according to a new report, Wall Street has taken a different approach than simply “acting like a professional human adult”: shunning women entirely.
Bloomberg’s Gillian Tan and Katia Porzecanski report that across the financial services industry, men are “channeling” Vice President Mike Pence, who won’t dine alone with a woman, for fear of doing something that could be construed as sexual harassment. (Pence, who reportedly calls his wife “Mother,” also insists on her presence if he attends an event where alcohol is served.) One investor says he won’t meet with a female employee in rooms that don’t have windows, in addition to “keeping his distance in elevators.” Another, in private equity, has a new, self-imposed rule that says he’s not allowed to have a business dinner with any women who are 35 or younger (apparently after 35 there’s no risk of doing anything appropriate, as women turn into old hags).
The horror stories continue. An investment adviser who oversees roughly 100 employees said he started to reconsider having one-on-ones with junior females. Others are refusing to sit next to female colleagues on flights and booking hotel rooms on different floors during work trips. #MeToo, according to David Bahnsen, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley, is “creating a sense of walking on eggshells.” Men, employment attorney Stephen Zweig told Bloomberg, are concerned about “a false accusation,” and “fear what they cannot control.”
Indeed, it’s a hard world out there for men who are largely protected from lawsuits thanks to an industry-wide preference for forced arbitration and a preponderance for N.D.A.s. But avoiding women at all costs doesn’t just make the men of Wall Street look like weird Mike Pences who apparently can’t control themselves in the presence of the devil sex. It also has a damaging effect on the careers of the women they’re shunning for fear of being accused of sexual harassment:
Now, more than a year into the #MeToo movement—with its devastating revelations of harassment and abuse in Hollywood, Silicon Valley and beyond—Wall Street risks becoming more of a boy’s club, rather than less of one…In this charged environment, the question is how the response to #MeToo might actually end up hurting women’s progress. Given the male dominance in Wall Street’s top jobs, one of the most pressing consequences for women is the loss of male mentors who can help them climb the ladder.
“There aren’t enough women in senior positions to bring along the next generation all by themselves,” Lisa Kaufman, chief executive officer of LaSalle Securities, told Bloomberg. “Advancement typically requires that someone at a senior level knows your work, gives you opportunities and is willing to champion you within the firm. It’s hard for a relationship like that to develop if the senior person is unwilling to spend one-on-one time with a more junior person.” Or if the senior person is taking cues from a guy who thinks the Aunt Jemima bottle is giving him lascivious winks from across the table.
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This story was originally published by Vanity Fair
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