The Women on Wall Street Project began as a joint initiative of Mehri & Skalet and the National Council of Women’s Organizations. Its purpose is to remedy the historic pay disparities impacting women working in the financial sector. Since its inception, the project has revealed a great deal about Wall Street’s failures to allocate business opportunities to its female financial advisors.
Beyond exposing this long-running inequity, we challenged some of the largest financial titans … and won. In 2007, we settled a class action lawsuit against Morgan Stanley & Co. for nearly $47 million on behalf of female plaintiffs who had alleged gender inequity in the distribution of accounts and other business opportunities. In 2008, we settled a similar case against Smith Barney for $33 million. And in early 2011, we settled our third case, this one regarding compensation and promotion practices against Wells Fargo/Wachovia for $32 million.
In each of these victories, Mehri & Skalet went beyond financial remuneration to require each Wall Street firm to change policies regarding account distributions, partnership arrangements, retention, diversity training, and other management responsibilities. We have established a firm foundation for gender equity on Wall Street for years to come.