Kevin McCoy

USA TODAY

Two former female employees of Goldman Sachs who have alleged the investment bank "perpetuates a gender-biased culture that sexualizes women" want to expand their lawsuit to cover more than a decade of alleged discrimination.

Women who have worked for the famed New York-based bank "report a 'boy's club' atmosphere where binge drinking is common" and "work events are held at strip clubs," according to the Manhattan federal court case originally filed in 2010 by H.Christina Chen-Oster, Lisa Parisi and Shanna Orlich.

On Monday, they filed a new motion seeking court certification as a class-action case that includes evidence from other women who worked as vice-presidents or associates in Goldman Sachs investment or securities units as far back as 2002.

If U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres approves, the case could take on heightened legal risk for the bank, which has denied the allegations and is contesting the lawsuit.

"Similarly situated female vice presidents have earned 21% less than male vice presidents," the former employees argued in the new legal filing. "Female associates have earned 8% less than male associates, and approximately 23% fewer female vice presidents have been promoted to managing director relative to their male counterparts."

The motion included additional statistics and legal declarations from other former Goldman Sachs employees to show the alleged bias toward women stretched back in time.

Katalin Tischhauser, an executive director in the bank's London office from June 2000 through March 2005, said she left Goldman Sachs because she was repeatedly passed over for promotions and "I felt that I would not be able to continue to advance my career at the firm as a woman."

She recounted a New Orleans conference on convertible bonds around 2001 where she said male Goldman Sachs colleagues "immediately suggested that we take clients to a strip club."

"Because this was client-focused entertainment, it would have been awkward for me to decline to attend," Tischhauser said in her legal declaration. "I later told this story to other Goldman Sachs colleagues and no one was at all surprised."

The additional data and allegations were filed in a legal effort to document common complaints from former and present Goldman Sachs employees too numerous to be joined in one case. Instead, the women who filed the case seek lead-plaintiff status in a class-action case where they would represent all similarly situated Goldman Sachs female counterparts from July 2002 to the present.

Torres is scheduled to receive opposition filings from Goldman Sachs within several weeks. She could also request oral arguments from both sides in the case before issuing a decision.

"This is a normal and anticipated procedural step for any proposed class action lawsuit and does not change the case's lack of merit," Goldman Sachs spokesman David Wells said of the new legal filings.