#MeToo fear boosts the old boys’ club

No more dinners with female colleagues. Don’t sit next to them on flights. Book hotel rooms on different floors. Avoid oneon-one meetings.

On Wall Street, men are adopting controversial strategies for the #MeToo era and, in the process, making life even harder for women.

Interviews with more than 30 senior executives suggest many are spooked by #MeToo and struggling to cope. “It’s creating a sense of walking on eggshells,” says David Bahnsen, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley.

More than a year into the #MeToo movement, Wall Street risks becoming more of a boys’ club, rather than less of one.

“Women are grasping for ideas on how to deal with it, because it is affecting our careers,” says Karen Elinski, president of the Financial Women’s Association and a senior vice president at Wells Fargo. “It’s a real loss.”

There’s a danger, too, for companies that fail to squash the isolating backlash, says Stephen Zweig, an employment lawyer. “If men avoid working or travelling with women alone, or stop mentoring women for fear of being accused of sexual harassment,” he says, “those men are going to back out of a sexual harassment complaint and right into a sex discrimination complaint.”

The changes can be subtle but insidious, with a woman, say, excluded from casual after-work drinks, leaving male colleagues to bond, or having what should be a private meeting with a boss with the door left wide open.

Given the male dominance in Wall Street’s top jobs, one of the most pressing consequences for women is the loss of male mentors. “There aren’t enough women in senior positions to bring along the next generation all by themselves,” says Lisa Kaufman, chief executive of LaSalle Securities.

“Advancement typically requires that someone at a senior level knows your work, gives you opportunities and is willing to champion you within the firm. It’s hard for a relationship like that to develop if the senior person is unwilling to spend one-onone time with a more junior person.”

Men have to step up, she says, and “not let fear be a barrier”. —