Forget “The Boys Club” — these women were fired because they were no good at their jobs.
That’s the ruling from a Manhattan judge who tossed a lawsuit brought by three female trainees — Sara Hudson, Julia Kuo and Catherine Wharton — against Merrill Lynch, claiming their 2009 firings were cases of sex discrimination because a boss had ordered them to attend a seminar by the author of a book called “Seducing the Boys Club: Uncensored Tactics From a Woman at the Top.”
The controversial how-to, penned by marketing exec Nina DiSesa, advocates stroking “men’s egos with flattery and manipulation in order to succeed in a male-dominated environment,” according to the women’s 2013 Manhattan Supreme Court suit.
They said the event was proof of Merrill’s bias against them, but Justice Cynthia Kern disagreed.
Kern noted that Hudson failed to meet achievement standards more than half of the time, Wharton bombed 10 of 12 tests, and Kuo was the weakest candidate compared to four other trainees.
“It is undisputed that a computer, and not a Merrill Lynch employee, targeted Ms. Wharton and other underperforming trainees for termination and that the computer did so based on statistical performance metrics,” Kern wrote in her 19-page ruling.
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Gregory Chiarello, blasted Kern for not evaluating the case under the city’s stringent Human Rights Law.
“We disagree with the court’s decision and will appeal,” Chiarello said.
The would-be wealth-management advisers “considered the message of the book to be highly offensive,” they said in their suit.
Kern allowed that the book talk was indeed “validly assailed as inappropriate,” but ultimately accepted Merrill’s defense that the employees were underachievers.
Kern added that the branch manager who invited DiSesa to speak was later fired and had nothing to do with his underlings’ ouster.
DiSesa was the first female chairwoman of marketing giant McCann Erickson, whose clients include Weight Watchers and American Airlines. She made Forbes’ 50 most powerful women in American business list in 1999. “Boys Club” also encourages women to act like a “little sister” or a “den mother” at work.
Merrill said the women never made complaints to human resources at the flagship Manhattan office about the allegedly offensive presentation.
Seven of eight women and seven of 20 of men enrolled in the trainee program at the time of the financial collapse were laid off, according to court papers.
A Merrill rep declined to comment on the judge’s ruling.
Additional reporting by Amanda Lozada and Kathryn Cusma