Women on Wall Street have a hard time arguing with the money to be made, but a survey released yesterday of men and women at seven major securities firms suggests that many women are dissatisfied with the extent of progress that has been made to help women advance in the securities industry.
The findings reaffirm an impression by many women on Wall Street that the industry remains inhospitable.
"It's extremely disheartening to see how far we have not come," said Alexandra Lebenthal, who heads her family's Wall Street firm and has been in the business for about 15 years.
PHOTO: NY TIMES
Most of the 500 women who responded to the survey conducted by Catalyst, a nonprofit research and advisory organization in New York, say they are happy with their jobs, citing challenging work and generous compensation.
But they also describe an industry where it is difficult to get ahead. Two-thirds say that they must work harder than men for the same rewards, and a third report a hostile environment where crude or sexist comments are tolerated, they are treated unfairly or are subject to unwanted sexual attention.
The survey, which is the first extensive look at the experiences of women working on Wall Street, also suggests that many women are making significant sacrifices in their personal lives, similar to the ones made by lawyers and other professionals. Only half of the women surveyed have children, compared with about three-quarters of the men surveyed. In a 1996 survey of senior women at Fortune 1000 companies, about two-thirds had children. Two-thirds of the Wall Street women were married or living with a partner, compared with 86 percent of the men.
While women praise the efforts of the securities firms generally to promote an atmosphere of respect, they say this has not yet translated into a workplace free of harassment or one that can be seen as a true meritocracy. Fewer than half of both men and women said they thought that promotion decisions were made fairly at their firm.
"Cultural change is very tough to make happen," said Sheila Wellington, the president of Catalyst.
Catalyst sent surveys to 2,200 women and men, both in senior and junior positions, at seven firms, the names of which it agreed not to disclose. All the findings were reported anonymously. Some 38 percent, 482 women and 356 men, responded. Catalyst also conducted nine focus groups in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.
About a quarter of the women who responded held the title of managing director or higher, with the typical respondent having worked at her current firm for 10 years and in the industry for 14 years. The report is part of the settlement of a sex-discrimination lawsuit brought against Smith Barney, now part of Citigroup, in which women charged that there had been a "boom-boom room" in one of the firm's offices, where male managers would harass female employees.
While the leaders of many Wall Street firms are committed to change, many in their organizations are not, Lebenthal said, adding, "I think there are a lot of people on Wall Street who do not see the need to change."
And only a fifth of the women surveyed say that the opportunities to advance have increased greatly in the last five years.
Given the resources many of the firms are pouring into efforts to diversify their work forces and given the large number of women on Wall Street, the lack of progress is surprising, said Dee Soder, an executive coach in New York who is managing partner in the CEO Perspective Group. "It's gotten much better," she said, "but there is still a glass ceiling with less reason for a glass ceiling."
There needs to be a greater commitment by the leadership at many Wall Street firms, agreed Janice Reals Ellig, an executive recruiter in New York and the co-author of What Every Successful Woman Knows, which offers advice from senior female executives about how to get ahead. "The progress is so slow," she said. "By the year 3000, we're going to get there."
But some argue that the securities industry is difficult for both men and women. "Wall Street, in general I believe, is undeservedly maligned," said Cristina Morgan, a senior investment banker at J.P. Morgan, the investment banking arm of J.P. Morgan Chase. Many women, and men, choose to leave Wall Street because of the hours, she said. The clients "pay us lots and lots of money to be at their disposal 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," she said.
And juggling the demands of a family with the work is extraordinarily hard, Morgan said, adding: "I am filled with admiration for my women partners who are successful and have children. I am mystified to how they do it." She indicated that she thought Wall Street was indeed a meritocracy.
But many of the women who remain in the business are deciding to forgo having children. "I cannot imagine ever having children and doing this business," a senior-level woman told Catalyst.
Men, of course, are also aware of the sacrifices required to rise on Wall Street, particularly in investment banking. "It's hard to be a middle-level vice president and not spend 90 hours a week at the firm," one man said. "That just doesn't jibe with trying to raise a family."
As a result, many women simply leave, as Janet Tiebout Hanson did when she departed from Goldman, Sachs to create her own firm, Milestone Capital Management. An adviser to Catalyst on the study, Hanson has also worked to improve the ability of women to network by creating 85 Broads, an Internet-based network of women who work or used to work at Goldman, Sachs. The name refers to the firm's famous address.
Hanson, for one, is optimistic that securities firms will be forced to change as women, especially those coming out of business school, leave Wall Street for friendlier, if not greener, pastures. Many, she thinks, will go elsewhere in corporate America. "It's a much bigger problem than they think," Hanson said. Soder, the executive coach, agreed, saying, "Corporations are now losing many of the best and the brightest."
Many of the women cited as a barrier to their moving up exclusion from important networks. "Well, it was every broker but me that got invited," a senior-level woman told Catalyst. "So they all got input as to maybe what they were doing wrong, or how they could improve their business, but me." The survey also offers a glimpse into the continued problem of sexual harassment on Wall Street. While sexual harassment is difficult to define and to measure with any precision, with little comparative data in private industries, the survey suggests that many women think that inappropriate or crude comments continue to be tolerated where they work. Some men agree. "In my experience," one said, "brokers are the raunchiest people that you'll ever meet."
About 13 percent of the women surveyed say they receive unwelcome sexual attention at work.
Susan Chadick, an executive recruiter who works at Gould, McCoy & Chadick in New York, worries the downturn in the economy may make the future, especially for senisor-level women, more bleak. "Not only hasn't there been any progress," she said, but "I'm concerned we're going backward."
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