The trouble for Erika Wesson at Fidelity Investments began with an anonymous email.
“Maybe you can go out there and do another deal where you lose millions. Stupid Bitch!” a copy of the 2008 message reads.
Wesson was then a Fidelity analyst and, by her account, the only woman on its real estate team for institutional investors. The email -- sent from a Yahoo account whose address was a crude comment on her anatomy --- said she would be fired.
From there things got worse.
Before long, Wesson became embroiled in a years-long discrimination fight with the mutual-fund giant -- one that sheds light on new allegations about the treatment of women who accuse men of discrimination.
Fidelity strenuously denies Wesson’s account, which, along with the 2008 email, is laid bare in hundreds of pages of court documents in a case still unfolding in state court in Boston, where the company is based.
On Thursday, Wesson’s story hit her hometown papers. The details are emerging after two prominent Fidelity money managers were dismissed in recent weeks over allegations of sexual harassment, exposing what some insiders have characterized as a men’s club mentality in parts of the company.
Six Complaints
Wesson’s complaint is one of at least six cases alleging discrimination against women at Fidelity in the last decade, according to a review of state records and court files. Companies usually resolve such grievances behind closed doors, and settlements forbid women from discussing them. So, the cases offer a rare look into disputes over the way women are treated at one of the world’s largest money-management firms, which oversees $2.3 trillion for 25 million customers.
Of the six complaints filed with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, the state agency that initially investigates such matters, three were dismissed and three were settled -- including Wesson’s. The other two involved allegations of a double standard for women who have relationships with co-workers and retaliation against a female employee for reporting harassment.