Wall Street can be a minefield for any competitive or ambitious person seeking a rewarding career, a name for themselves—and handsome paydays. They quickly find themselves surrounded by other competitive and ambitious people looking for exactly the same things. For women, the challenges can run even deeper, and for them, the world of Wall Street is particularly fraught.
Consider this: The biggest U.S. banks were all run by men until Jane Fraser became Citigroup’s CEO in 2021. Asset management firms—particularly glamorous private equity and hedge funds—are largely ruled by men. Even when women find a way into Wall Street firms, pay gaps persist despite the fact that the Equal Pay Act was enacted way back in 1963. Other abuses can also crop up.
Goldman Sachs recently agreed to pay $215 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by about 2,800 women who accused the Wall Street giant of routinely underpaying them and their female colleagues. And this has been going on for a long time. It’s hard to tell how much real change has occurred—at least when it comes to workplace respect and money.
To be sure, progress has been made. More women are working than ever before: About 64% of women ages 25 to 54 were employed or seeking jobs in the U.S. in 1980; by early 2023, that figure had jumped to more than 77%.
For its part, Goldman Sachs says that its most recent partner and managing director promotions created the “highest percentages of women in the history of the firm.” Still, men dominate the upper reaches of Goldman Sachs. The firm’s 2022 partner class was only 29% women. Its managing director class was 30% female the year before.
Across the entire universe of S&P 500 companies, women hold about 33% of the board seats—an improvement, of course, but still not on a par with men. Women’s pay is about 83% of what men make across the U.S. labor market.
What’s it like to fight through those challenges, especially when your own dreams collide with hurdles—that is, when they collide with men?
Timothy L. O'Brien is senior executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion. A former editor and reporter for the New York Times, he is author of TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.