Wall Street Dudes Can't Risk Being Around Women, Too Dangerous

The MeToo movement has struck so much fear—of saying something that could be misinterpreted or lead to false sexual harassment or misconduct charges—into the hearts of the men of Wall Street that they’ve decided to just avoid women in the workplace as much as possible, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

For Wall Street men who are afraid they might be outed for their behavior, women are “an unknown risk,” mitigated only by side-stepping women at every turn. That includes in meetings, on work trips, and at after-work dinners.

Thanks to the MeToo movement and these dudes’ inability to just be normal around their colleagues, “Wall Street risks becoming more of a boy’s club, rather than less of one,” reporters Gillian Tan and Katia Porzecanski write.

The irony is that all of this risk-management could veer into another, at least legally perilous, territory: Getting slapped with a gender discrimination lawsuit. An employment lawyer told Bloomberg: “If men avoid working or traveling with women alone, or stop mentoring women for fear of being accused of sexual harassment, those men are going to back out of a sexual harassment complaint and right into a sex discrimination complaint.”

Go to a work dinner with a woman: Danger. Skip dinner: Other danger. Gosh, if only there was a third option that was safe for all parties involved… Hmmm, wait. No, I lost it.