Fidelity Investments’ Abigail Johnson took center stage on Tuesday and counseled money managers gathering in Washington about charting their future in the digital world.
But the chief executive, a featured speaker at one of the industry’s biggest conferences, is also struggling with a stubborn legacy of the past: the treatment of women in the world of finance.
Over the last two months, Fidelity, one of the largest investment companies, has dismissed two portfolio managers -- one over allegations of inappropriate sexual comments and another over claims of sexually harassing a female junior employee.
In the speech, Johnson said she wants to create a workplace that is free of sexual harassment.
“I won’t tolerate it and nor should anyone else," Johnson said. This is “critical” for the industry, she said.
Johnson added that much had changed since she was a Fidelity equity analyst in 1989, “but have we advanced enough is the question we are all confronted with now.”
There remains a gap between current policies and the behaviors that many men and women experience in the workplace today, she said, adding that “for us to build a better future it is important for us to create a culture where bad behavior is not tolerated.”
The departures at Fidelity join a growing number of such cases that have been roiling industries including Hollywood, Silicon Valley and television. Women who once remained silent are now speaking up against what they describe as workplaces that ignore or cover-up years of harassment and assault.
On Monday, Johnson, 55, issued a video to the firm’s 40,000 employees in response to the reports saying: “We have no tolerance at our company for any type of harassment.”
Male-dominated Wall Street has long struggled with its treatment of women. In a 1990s class-action lawsuit, women claimed harassment at brokerage Smith Barney, where one branch’s basement playpen known as the “boom-boom room” epitomized a frat-house atmosphere. State Street Corp. recently settled U.S. allegations that it discriminated against hundreds of women by paying them less than male colleagues.