“And then I left.” The Real Cost of Harassment, Assault and Discrimination in Financial Services
By: Sonya Dreizler
Tags: Discrimination, Financial Services, Sexual Harassment, Finance, Financial Inclusion

With most instances of harassment, assault, and discrimination, it’s hard to know all of the career repercussions from the incident, and the victim’s decision about whether or not to report the incident to supervisors. In talking to dozens of women for this series, I noticed that many of them didn’t see the whole impact on their careers until they had years of distance from the events.

Above we see that harassment and discrimination can lead directly to career changing consequences for the victims.

This CFA Institute interview with Suni Hartford sums up the problem:

“Male attrition tends to be led by external pull factors, whereas female attrition is led by internal push factors,” she said.

So where does that leave us?

“Men, (and I know I’m stereotyping) tend to be pulled. That is, their rationale for leaving a firm is they are presented with an offer of a better title, greater compensation, upside potential,” Harford said. “Women tend to be pushed. They don’t like the culture, they don’t feel that the firm or their manager gets it, fail to receive appropriate compensation, perceive a lack of opportunity.”

In a recent investigation into harassment in financial services, “employment attorneys confirmed that pattern. Several lawyers said that in their experience, most women across industries who spoke up about harassment wound up leaving their jobs — whether they got fired, quit, or agreed to leave in a settlement — while most of the men who created a hostile environment either stayed on at the same firm or quickly found employment elsewhere.”

Now What?

Victims forced off their career paths is heartbreaking on the individual level. At the industry level, it is devastating to the collective talent pool. We regularly bemoan the fact there are so few women executives in the financial services; meanwhile industry systems seemed design to treat women as an aberration that needs to fit in or get out.

So how do we support women to have fulfilling financial services careers with equal opportunities at every level of the business?

I don’t pretend to have all of the answers but below I’ve offered one idea to consider at the systemic level, and a couple at the individual behavior level. But before we jump to working on solutions, I urge you to first continue listening to women’s’ experiences to better understand the problem.

Systemic: Large firms must have clear and accessible mechanisms to report harassment, discrimination, and assault. The reports must be taken seriously, irrespective of how much revenue the accused represents for the company.

For small firms with no HR, or where the owners are the ones harassing and discriminating, women don’t have much recourse except to sue, or leave. If treating women with respect because it’s the right thing to do isn’t enough incentive (and it should be), consider the financial cost of lawsuits or employee turnover, and then treat all employees with professional respect.

FINRA should consider updating its regulations around disclosure of harassment. Currently harassment arbitrations are not disclosed on BrokerCheck so a broker who has been fired or “allowed to resign” from one firm, can go on to the next firm and do the same thing again with no warning to the new firm. For a detailed (and maddening) view into this practice, check out this 2018 investigation by journalist Susan Antilla. Though FINRA may not intentionally be protecting harassers, the current systems are an impediment to women’s success in the field.

Individual Behavior: Intentionally expand your network. Listen to more women. Ask a woman colleague about her experience and truly listen. Then ask how you can help and actually follow through. This help may cost you time or money in the short term, but being a champion for women, and especially women of color will pay dividends throughout your career.