Why Dr Eva will live to regret her £5m victory
There was a haunted look on the face of Dr eva Carneiro as she left an employment tribunal this week following a secret deal which ended her sexual discrimination claim against Chelsea Football Club.
My guess is that although the former team doctor had won a pay-out estimated to be a staggering £5million, she may have realised that despite her stunning victory, her decision to bring the case may have been a terrible mistake.
Like many women before her who have bravely challenged males bosses over perceived sexism, the long-term effect could be deeply damaging.
Take two previous high-profile cases, in which successful City women (bankers Svetlana Lokhova and Isabel Sitz) took on their bosses for sexual discrimination. They won huge payouts of up to £3.2million but admitted afterwards that they were left feeling debilitated by the experience, with their self-confidence shattered.
During the tribunals they would have had to defend themselves against an army of lawyers and the inevitable courtroom attempts at character assassination.
Dr Carneiro, as we know, lost her job after the then Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho, called her a ‘daughter of a whore’ for treating a player on the pitch he didn’t think was injured.
The 42-year-old doctor claimed she was simply seeking what was called a ‘whole career loss’ damages, which is probably an accurate description.
By challenging the oafs who control football, she will almost certainly never again get the job she loved in the industry she loved.
Why would a manager hire her if he feared she might be noting down or squirrelling away incriminating comments or emails for possible use in some future discrimination claim?
At the end of the case, Dr Carneiro said: ‘It has been an extremely difficult and distressing time for me and my family.’
Yes, sexist behaviour is unacceptable, but any woman brave enough to confront it needs to know that money won’t necessarily compensate her for the nightmare she will go through.
revenge, however, justified, has a tendency — like a penalty rebounding off a goalpost — to bounce back and hit you in the face.