Dredsner Kleinwort Wasserstein: Culture, Gender & Stress.

Essay by funkmaster2007 May 2007

download word file, 20 pages 4.0

Introduction.

The purpose of this essay is to analyse and asses the validity of claims made in a lawsuit that is currently underway in the United States of America between Dredsner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DKW) and six of its female employees. The plaintiffs are seeking $1.4 billion on behalf of over five hundred women who work for the investment bank. This is for a range of damages and on the basis of gender discrimination toward women. Further background to the case can be seen in Appendices I and II.

From my analysis I hope to establish whether gender discrimination has occurred. In the analysis I will cover the topic of gender. Furthermore I will look at the culture within DKW as a source of discrimination and possible consequences for the employees; such as stress. These three topics will make up the main body of the essay, which will be structured into clear sections.

The three topics are closely related and thus within each section links will be established to the other two.

Throughout the essay a variety of relevant theories and concepts will be implemented to aid the textual analysis.

Gender.

It can be seen that in recent times that a greater number of women have taken up work. This can be evidenced by the fact that "Female employment stands at a record high level of 12.9 million." (Labour Force Survey 2002.) Likewise it appears that women are still subject to pay inequalities, despite the creation of The Equal Pay Act, which took effect in 1975. The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) found that in 2005, average annual earnings for men were over eight thousand pounds higher than that of women. The pay differential is most apparent in the banking, insurance and pensions, industrial sector; a gender pay gap of...