Ellevest CEO Sallie Krawcheck gives advice on #MeToo

Ellevest founder Sallie Krawcheck
Ellevest

• Men spooked about how to act in the workplace in the
  wake of the #MeToo movement should remember basic lessons from
  grade school, according to Ellevest CEO Sallie
  Krawcheck. 
• Whatever you weren’t allowed to do in fourth grade, you
  aren’t allowed to do now, she said.
• Krawcheck spoke on Monday at Business Insider’s annual
  IGNITION
  2018 conference. 

To all the Wall Street men out there
afraid spooked by how to act in the workplace in the wake of
the #MeToo movement, Sallie Krawcheck, once among the most
powerful women on Wall Street and now the CEO of women-focused
investment firm Ellevest, has some advice. 

“Remember fourth grade? Whatever you weren’t allowed to do
in fourth grade, don’t do now,” she said. “You aren’t supposed to
put you hands on someone? Don’t put your hands on somebody — it’s
just common sense. Anything you wouldn’t want your wife or
partner to do, don’t do it.” 

Krawcheck, who ran Merrill Lynch’s wealth management
business and served as chief executive of US Trust, Citi private
bank, and CFO of Citigroup, made the remarks on Monday while
speaking at Business Insider’s IGNITION 2018 conference in New
York. 

She believes it’s important for women to still enter
Wall Street — but maybe not those areas that have long been
dominated by men.

“Go into the industry because it needs freshness and
innovation … but maybe you don’t want to go into the business
that remains 90% men … where you look up and you see no women
in a vice president or director or managing director role,” she
said. “Maybe you don’t want to fight that fight
yourself.” 

Then years after the financial crisis, women are still
underrepresented on Wall Street, especially in investing roles.
Women made up only about 28% of individuals registered with the
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the agency that governs
brokerages, as of 2017.

“We went into the downturn white, male and middle-aged, and
we came out it of whiter, maler, and middle-ager,” she
said.