Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was sued by three former female employees who claim they faced discrimination in pay and fewer opportunities for promotion than men at the firm.
"The violations of its female employees' rights are systemic, are based upon companywide policies and practices and are the result of unchecked gender bias that pervades Goldman Sachs' corporate culture," the women said Wednesday in a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan.
The plaintiffs, H. Cristina Chen-Oster, 39, a former vice president; Lisa Parisi, 48, a former managing director, and Shanna Orlich, 30, a former associate, seek class-action status to represent all female Goldman employees with those job titles.
The women seek unspecified damages and a court order requiring Goldman Sachs to remedy the "systemic sex discrimination" at the firm, according to the complaint.
Chen-Oster is now a managing director in sales at Deutsche Bank AG in New York, where she has worked since 2006. A spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank declined to comment.
The complaint alleged that the proportion of women among Goldman Sachs managers decreases as the job level increases. The women said that, according to figures published by Goldman Sachs in 2009, women were 29% of vice presidents and 17% of managing directors.
According to 2008 figures, 14% of partners were women, the plaintiffs said.
Four members of the 30-person management committee are women, as is one of nine executive officers, according to the complaint.
The complaint also asserted that Goldman Sachs gives its managers, most of whom are men, "unchecked discretion" over assignments.
