| When #MeToo became a national and international movement to bring voice and justice to women who had been sexually assaulted or harassed at their workplace, it touched nearly every industry from entertainment and news to Silicon Valley.
But one particular industry seemed to be left out of the reckoning.
“Five years after the #MeToo movement went viral, the financial industry seems to have been largely untouched by its consequences, at least when measured by public ousters of individual men behaving badly,” senior writer Maria Aspan writes in her latest story.
But that’s about to change, as two long-standing lawsuits—one nearly 17 years old—finally have trial dates next year.
These cases, Aspan writes, are an unusual “public referendum on the financial industry, where claims of sexism and harassment are usually dealt with secretly—and where victims still often face steeper professional consequences than the accused.”
Aspan and a few of our colleagues previously caught up with some of the high-profile women who pushed #MeToo into the mainstream. She now writes that the two lawsuits—one against Goldman Sachs and the other against TCW—could bring long-delayed accountability around sexual harassment and discrimination on Wall Street.
“Change happens slowly, and then all at once,” Sara Tirschwell, the plaintiff in the TCW case, told Aspan. “Change is still happening very slowly on Wall Street—but maybe this is the moment.”
You can read Aspan’s story below. |
