(lively music) - Today's #MeToo movement has not only put a spotlight on hostile work environments for women, but it's also raised questions about why it took so long for their stories to become public.

- It turns out there are answers to be found in an earlier wave of sexual harassment in the workplace on Wall Street in the 1980s and '90s.

Women had entered the traditionally male-dominated world of finance in large numbers.

The ensuing harassment scandals had repercussions that are still affecting the workplace today.

It became easier for companies to cover up the problem, and harder for victims to get their cases heard.

(intense music) - I wanted to go to Wall Street, because I was basically lower middle-class at the time, and I wanted a taste of the good life.

- [Celeste] Marlene Jupiter started working on Wall Street, in the early 1980s.

- You knew that you were going into a man's world, but I loved Wall Street.

It had that excitement of being part of the future.

- [Celeste] In just over a decade, she became one of the top performers at her firm, earning close to a million dollars a year.

- I became a senior VP, and then I landed very huge hedge fund accounts, and that was when really, the lions came on.

- [Celeste] According to Jupiter, some of the male brokers began making antisemitic comments, and spreading false sexual rumors about her that got worse the more that she earned.

- They would call me the chick with a (bleep).

They would deliver cakes with dildos on that, and that was supposed to be funny.

And then when I was on vacation, I'd get phone calls that they're trying to sabotage my customers.

Basically, they're telling you that you're not really welcome at the party.

You're a woman, you're not one of us.

- Wall Street was a hot bed of sex harassment, of gender discrimination.

The environment was as bawdy and as sexualized as any in this country.

- The name of the game was to make the women feel like they didn't belong there, and that played out in a lot of ways.

Women would come back from maternity leave and lose their jobs.

Women would try to get a promotion from sales assistant to broker, and they weren't allowed to do it, but the guys could.

And then, at the other extreme, you had sexual assault and sexual harassment.

It was almost like a weapon to show them you shouldn't be here, and if you're gonna be here, we're gonna make you really, really uncomfortable.

- Being bullied destroys your confidence.

It destroys everything about you.

I would go to human resources and it would go away for a few months, and then it would come back.

At one point, I was getting physically sick, and that's when I decided to leave.

I couldn't function anymore.

- She quit, and she wasn't planning on doing anything.

She wasn't gonna sue them, but then she had a great job lined up.

The employer called her old trading desk to ask about her, and they trashed her, and she didn't get the job, and that's when she said, "I've had enough."

- [Celeste] But for brokers like Jupiter, taking an employer to court wasn't an option, because of a small clause in their licensing paperwork.

- In the '90s, everyone in the securities industry was required to register with the SEC.

In theory it was to make sure that they were hiring people without crimes in their background, but one of the boxes you had to check said that you agreed to arbitrate any claim you had against your employer.

So you had no choice.

You could not work in the industry without waiving your right to bring a claim in a public court.

- [Celeste] Arbitration was designed to avoid the courthouse by swiftly resolving conflicts before a private panel.

- The securities industry had set up its own arbitration system which was run by them, and the purpose of the system was to protect it from liability.

It was all industry insiders, many of whom were not even lawyers.

- [Celeste] The vast majority of the industry's arbitrators were white, male, and over 60, reinforcing what many felt were deeply rooted institutional biases.

- I thought I was gonna win.

I had witnesses that came through the arbitration, but I lost.

If I had gone to court I am sure I woulda won.

- [Celeste] Jupiter wasn't alone.

At the time, the majority of women who brought harassment cases to arbitration on Wall Street lost, and it happened behind closed doors.

- When you go to arbitration, there are no public documents filed.

There are no reporters or members of the public allowed in the room to watch, and it allows their rainmakers to be repeat offenders, because nobody ever finds out.

- [Celeste] Susan Antilla was one of the first journalists to report on the pervasive sexual harassment and discrimination on Wall Street.

- It's all about silence.

It's all about keeping these cases quiet.

- [Celeste] But in 1996 that silence was broken.

- [Male] Tonight, the lawsuit that everyone on Wall Street is watching.

Outrageous claims about men behaving badly at Smith Barney.

- Women were referred to as bitches and whores.

- [Celeste] A group of Wall Street women joined together in a class-action lawsuit, allowing them to circumvent arbitration, and bring their cases into court.

- The potential class-action suit is extremely important, because it aims at much more than collecting damages.

The 23 women are trying to bring down the arbitration system, the killer of employee relations on Wall Street.

- It was brilliant.

They got the cases filed in court, and all of a sudden they started hearing from other women all around the country.

The coverage of that case changed everything, because the brokerage firms couldn't hide anymore.

It got broadcast coverage.

It got print coverage.

Everybody was watching, and that's the difference.

You never saw that about an arbitration case.

- They would never treat men the way they have treated us.

- He said that he wanted to pull my stockings down and sit me on his lap.

- I was up like against this wall.

I was trying to get free from him, and I just.

He was my friend.

- [Celeste] Lisa Mays was among the first women to join the class-action suit against Smith Barney.

The assault at her workplace still haunts her today.

- He lifted up my skirt and started to put his hands like underneath my tights, to pull down my tights, and then luckily something happened and the front door clicked, and he walked away from me like nothing happened, like nothing had just occurred.

- [Celeste] Mays reported the incident to human resources, but she says her complaint was ignored, and her attacker stayed on the job.

- Then when I found out about the lawsuit, and that the company was calling it an isolated incident, I was like, it's not.

I have to get involved.

I have to call these lawyers.

And they couldn't believe what had happened to me - [Celeste] Nearly 2,000 women joined the lawsuit, and other suits soon followed.

- The cloud hangs over America's financial community.

Almost every major firm faces, or has faced, a sexual discrimination charge.

- It really was a Me Too movement.

Oh yeah, that happened to me as well, and it was contagious.

- [Celeste] In the wake of the publicity, firms implemented programs to address sexual harassment and discrimination concerns.

- [Male Reporter] Under the agreement, smith Barney will establish a 15 million dollar fund to train and recruit more women and minorities.

- There's a moment in time, after those Wall Street cases were brought, when there was such optimism, and people really thought that change was gonna happen across the board, with pay, with promotion, with everything.

- [Celeste] The Securities Exchange Commission even eliminated the requirement to arbitrate over discrimination claims.

But many firms inserted the requirement into employee handbooks and contracts, creating a roadmap that other industries followed.

- Wall Street was the model that management lawyers pointed to to convince their clients that it was time to start compelling arbitration of discrimination claims.

And they literally produced papers that said, "look at what the securities industry "has been able to do with their sex harassment claims," and they would list sex harassment claim, claim dismissed, sex harassment claim, claim dismissed, discrimination claim, claim dismissed, and that was a marketing device, and very effective, because it's all true.

- Back when the women on Wall Street were suing, in the mid 1990s, and seven percent of US companies then had mandatory arbitration, and today it's more than half.

- [Celeste] That trend has become a flashpoint in the latest fight against harassment and discrimination.

- The Me Too movement is taking down big names for sexual assault and sexual harassment.

- [Female Reporter] Hundreds of people on Sunday brought their fight against sexual violence to the heart of Hollywood.

- Rise up for the women of the world-- - [Celeste] From secret settlements to confidentiality clauses, there's been a public reckoning on how victim's stories have been kept quiet for so long.

- Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson is suing her former boss, Roger Ailes, claiming she was let go for refusing his sexual advances.

- I did not even realize how pervasive this epidemic of sexual harassment and forced arbitration was in our society, until after I brought my case forward.

And then hundreds, and then thousands of women started reaching out to me, and their stories had never been told.

A lot of them, because of arbitration.

- [Celeste] Carlos herself was bound by arbitration, but her lawyers filed a court suit anyway.

In the end, she settled her case and signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Today, she's been helping to gather support for legislation that would prohibit mandatory arbitration in cases involving sexual harassment.

- Arbitration completely perpetuates harassment in the workplace.

There are no appeals, you don't get the same amount of witnesses, it's secret, you normally get a much paltry settlement than you would if you were in an open court system.

If the majority of these cases are not going into an open jury process, then how do we make progress as a nation, on building upon case, after case, after case?

That's how our legal system works.

- The courts are overwhelmed with litigation.

There are many courts in the country that just can't make a dent in getting through their docket.

- [Celeste] Attorney Alan Kaplinsky is a leading advocate for the use of arbitration in consumer and employment disputes.

He says, "The process has an important role to play."

- Arbitration, it's a lot less costly than going to court.

It's a lot faster.

It's extremely efficient, and it's a process that is time-tested.

There are always gonna be anecdotes, one-off stories that people are gonna be able to tell, but I haven't seen actual data showing any connection between arbitration and the increase of wrongdoing by employers.

There's just no connection.

- [Celeste] Today, a new generation of workers is demanding an end to mandatory arbitration.

- Tonight a massive walkout across the country and around the world.

Google employees revolting over the treatment of women, including the handling of workplace sexual harassment.

- [Male Reporter] The employee have a list of demands including an end to forced arbitration and a commitment to end pay and opportunity disparity.

- We demand structural change in the name of-- - The Google walkout wasn't just about sexual harassment.

It was about this large structural imbalance of power that has caused inequity in a number of areas.

We wanted anyone who was discriminated against for race or wrongfully terminated to also be protected.

- [Celeste] And some of these demands are starting to be met.

- [Male Anchor] Google has released a new policy ending forced arbitration in cases of sexual harassment and assault.

It's in response to recent protests.

- [Female Anchor] Other tech companies are taking notice, like Facebook, which said they would do the same and on Monday, Airbnb said it was ending forced arbitration not just for sexual harassment, but all cases involving discrimination.

- All of this is about fighting for equity.

It's about true equality, to know that whether it's about being free from harassment, being free from stereotypes, from inadequate pay, all of that has to change, in order to say yes, you and I are truly equal in the eyes of the law.

- [Celeste] Change is happening albeit slowly.

- If you look at Wall Street today, you do see less harassment.

You certainly see less blatant stuff happening, but you still see pay disparities, still see women being pushed out.

- [Celeste] Two decades after the sexual harassment cases of the '90s, only an estimated 17% of brokers are women.

- My big concern about Me Too is that we'll see a backslide when you don't see coverage of this as much anymore.

So there's a real lesson to be learned from those early cases.