Selling Women Short
Gender and Money on Wall Street
By Louise Marie Roth
(Princeton University Press $27.95)

Every year or two, another lawsuit crops up alleging that some large Wall Street firm has been discriminating against women. There was the infamous “Boom Boom Room” lawsuit, in which female Smith Barney workers alleged their male colleagues partied with lap dancers. Then Morgan Stanley settled a class action lawsuit with 340 female workers who claimed they were denied promotion opportunities, paying lead plaintiff Allison Schieffelin $12m in the process. Last year, a jury awarded former UBS Warburg director Laura Zubulake $29m after she was sacked for complaining of discrimination.