Originally posted by BBC News
US bankers in $1bn sex bias case
Six female employees are suing a German investment bank in the US for $1.4bn (£791m) in compensation for alleged gender discrimination.
The women say a "glass ceiling" at the New York City office of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein denied them fair treatment and equal pay.
The suit also alleges women were hired as "eye candy".
The company would not comment on the case, but said that it complied with all employment-related laws.
A statement said the company "was confident that any claims to the contrary are without merit."
The case is thought to be the largest of its kind in the US, and is one of a number of lawsuits recently brought against high-profile Wall Street institutions.
Strip club
"The glass ceiling is alive and well at this German investment bank where women are treated as second-class citizens," said the suit, filed on Monday.
The case has been brought by five female employees in New York, and one at the bank's London office, who have been with the company for a total of 50 years. It hopes to gain class-action status to represent 500 women workers.
Women account for fewer than 2% of the managing directors at the firm's capital markets division, and only 13% of directors worldwide.
One of the plaintiffs, director Jyoti Ruta, said she was pressured to leave a dinner held to celebrate the closing of a major deal so that her male colleagues could visit a strip club.
Plaintiff Katherine Smith said she was referred to a new employee as "the Pamela Anderson of trading".
Another said salesmen on her desk said they chose junior female employees based on their appearance because they wanted "eye candy" in the office.
The suit comes as US retail giant Wal-Mart also faces a sex discrimination lawsuit, brought in 2001, involving over 1.5 million current and former female employees.
A court in California is considering an appeal on whether to grant the case class-action status, which would make it the largest class-action suit ever filed.
Last year, a former US director of the Swiss bank UBS won a $29m payout for sex discrimination. In 2004, US investment giant Morgan Stanley settled a class-action sex discrimination lawsuit for $54m.
