12-17-2020
Former Fidelity Investments employee Elizabeth Evans filed a lawsuit against the company. Evans claims two male colleagues made repeated offensive remarks about her pregnancy, race, women’s bodies, and slavery. In her lawsuit, Evans describes herself as Afro Latina and of Dominican descent. Evans alleges that the male colleagues disparaged Islam and spoke positively about slavery’s impact on the American economy. The men allegedly made negative comments about Evans’s curly hair, asserting that it looked like dreadlocks. Shortly after sharing news of her pregnancy, the two men graphically described their interpretation of what happens to women during childbirth, referred to maternity leave as “vacation,” and asked whether Evans planned to stay home with her child “like every other mom” who claims to be coming back to work. In her complaint, Evans described her working environment as “unrelentingly hostile” such that “it is not possible to list all of the comments and conduct in one document.” She resigned from her employment in early 2018.
As of the filing of the lawsuit, both men remain employed by Fidelity. Bloomberg reported that Fidelity’s chief executive officer, Abigail Johnson, came on in 2014 with the mission of remedying gender issues at the company. Evans worked at a small, remote office in Merrimack, New Hampshire. Evans claims her male supervisor and others excluded her following her complaints about the environment. Evans further claims that a Johnson video about changing the company’s dynamic was ignored in her office.
Fidelity’s spokesperson stated that the company investigated the matter and found the allegations to be without merit. He asserted that the company does not tolerate the behavior described in the lawsuit.