EY Settles N.J. Charges Over ‘Offensive’ Leadership Training

Ernst & Young LLP has agreed to settle charges that a training session for its female leaders was discriminatory and violated New Jersey civil rights laws.

The Big Four accounting firm, which didn’t admit to any wrongdoing, will pay the state $100,000 and create a $500,000 scholarship fund intended for women and underrepresented minority professionals to settle the gender discrimination charges, according to a memorandum of agreement with the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office released Tuesday.

The training session, called “Power-Presence-Purpose,” perpetuated gender stereotypes, presented what the state described as “purported ‘science’” about differences between male and female brains, and ...