New York, NY: Goldman Sachs is facing a gender bias
class action lawsuit filed by a group of former employees. The lawsuit that alleges the bank pays women less, sexualizes women and undermines their success.
Filed by Cristina Chen-Oster and Shanna Orlich, the lawsuit claims that counter to what Goldman has claimed in the suit thus far, the women working in different departments across the giant bank can be grouped together for the lawsuit because they're subject to uniform company policies.
The lawsuit alleges that Goldman Sachs pays similarly situated female vice presidents 21 percent less than their male counterparts and that 23 percent fewer female vice presidents are promoted to managing director roles that instead go to their male colleagues.
"The record overwhelmingly demonstrates that year after year Goldman continues to treat women as second-class employees, permitting a culture of fear and retaliation to flourish rather than fixing known, systemic gender bias,"the plaintiffs said in a memorandum in support of Tuesday's motion. "Goldman also perpetuates a gender-biased culture that sexualizes women and undermines their success."
Further, the plaintiffs claims that GS maintains a culture that is "hostile"to women and argues for class certification as the bank has kept to its "boys' club"atmosphere despite hearing from many female employees that the environment is discriminatory.
The lawsuit also claims that Goldman has a "360-degree"review process, in which women are reviewed by their male colleagues, often to detrimental results. Male co-workers rate one another higher, moving the men up for promotion over their female counterparts, regardless of performance the class claims.
The case is H. Cristina Chen-Oster et al. v. Goldman Sachs & Co. et al., case number 1:10-cv-06950, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The plaintiffs are represented by Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP and Outten & Golden LLP.
