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As usual when one of the few, high-ranking female Wall Street executives announces her departure (or her departure is announced for her), a discussion ensues about the lack of women in senior roles in investment banking. This discussion typically centers around work-life balance: Women, the discussion goes, who are historically the primary caretakers in families, do not want to compromise their family lives for their professional lives. And so, given that the investment banking industry is one of the country's most demanding, both time-wise and stress-wise, female bankers often opt out at some point during their careers to spend more time with their families. And this is why you see mostly men at the top of org charts and not women.
But I call B.S. on this.
Instead, I'd argue that while work-life balance surely does keep some women from wanting to stick it out in banking, what really keeps them from wanting to stick it out, and what prevents them from progressing, not to mention getting into the industry in the first place, is men. And, more specifically, men like Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Anthony Weiner. That is, sexism is the reason women aren't on top.
Here's one scene I remember. I'm a first-year analyst and working on a deal with two associates -- one male, one female -- and a VP, a male. I'm called into the VP's office. The male associate is already inside. The door is closed. A B.S.-ing session begins. Yankees, Mets, Knicks, girls, etc. After the VP tells us his latest racial joke, he asks if we think the female associate is a lesbian. I have no idea, I say. I don't think so, I say. Then he asks if we'd shag her if she'd let us. Of course, he doesn't use the word shag. I don't answer. I try to change the subject. Then he says a bunch of other stuff I'd rather not put in print.
Here's another scene. I'm an associate, working at a small investment bank. And here's the (unofficial) itinerary of our company Christmas party: happy hour at a nearby bar, dinner at a downtown restaurant, massages at a Midtown parlor, and drinks at an uptown strip bar. (As I recall, the two women in the office were encouraged to attend all parts of the party aside from the part involving the massages.)
I could, of course, go on.
To be fair, there are scores of other comments from survey respondents that speak to how investment banks do attempt to go to great lengths to hire and retain women. Often, these respondents cite the women's groups and women support networks that banks now operate.
But, when a great majority of these comments are coming from men, and the stats continue to point to the shrinking percentage of women in banking both at the top and bottom of org charts, and men in powerful positions (albeit not quite on Wall Street but not all that far away either) continue to get accused and/or busted for sexist acts involving hotel maids and Twitter followers, who, and what, is a girl, or boy, to believe?
Meet Derek Loosvelt, Vault's global finance editor. He has a BS in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in creative writing from the New School. His writing has appeared in various publications, including Brill's Content, Inside.com, Paper magazine and the Independent Film & Video Monthly. Previously, he worked in investment banking for CIBC and Duff & Phelps.
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