History of Feminism
Related: About this forumWomen At Merrill Lynch Were Instructed To Seduce Their Way To The Top, Lawsuit Alleges
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/07/26/2362461/merill-lynch-sexist/New details have emerged from a bias lawsuit filed by three former employees of Merrill Lynch against the company, which alleges that during training they were instructed to read a book called Seducing the Boys Club: Uncensored Tactics From a Woman at the Top and emulate its advice.
The tips in the book, published by New York Magazines The Cut, are truly shocking. I play on [men's] masculine pride and natural instincts to protect the weaker sex, says a section of the book advising women on how to get men to do their work. Unless he is morbidly obese, there is no man on earth who wont puff up at this sentence: Wow, you look great. Been working out? suggests a portion on diffusing tense situations.
According to the New York Post, the women were also pressured to attend gals-only events on topics like dressing for success and preparing healthy meals while working full-time. The women also report being told to be more perky or bubbly, and one even says a manager told her to stick to her knitting when she tried to bring in a client.
These demeaning and rather tragic pieces of advice might well be a reality for many women on male-dominated Wall Street. Its a known Boys Club, and Wall Streeters have a track record of using women as scapegoats, instead of treating them as equals. Women are vastly underrepresented in the finance industry much more so than in other areas and hold only 8.6 percent of executive officer jobs. Women also earn less than men in finance; the top six jobs with the biggest pay gaps are financial.
And yet the same half-educated, sub-literate, always-male idiots tell us day after day on DU that this doesn't happen...
MotherPetrie
(3,145 posts)aquart
(69,014 posts)Ah, Wall Street hasn't changed a bit from the days a Sr Veep tried to give me to a client as a perk.
Squinch
(51,000 posts)VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)ismnotwasm
(42,006 posts)This layered wrong. First it's insulting to men--or they should be insulted--because it assumes that all men are dumbass unprincipled sexual pigs. Combining patriarchy and misogyny leads to this bullshit---the comment about 'morbidly obese' is offensive and weird, because what this attitude suggests is actually a form of prostitution IMO, given the atmosphere- whether women sleep with anybody or not.
"The weaker sex"? Seriously?
Telling women to pander to the supposed fragile egos of males makes my skin crawl.
Yes this does happen, and anyone who thinks otherwise is grossly uninformed, (probably with anecdotal evidence such as that 'I work in finance and I have a woman boss' kind of crap) or in denial, or plain doesn't give a shit--that the most likely--or thinks this is actually the way things should be.
Finance is a messed up world, as the whole country has experienced and this is yet another symptom of inner rot. It's regressive, wrong and completely unbalanced. Not to mention sexist when it's not outright misogynist--the whole system arose from patriarchy.