Unusual Settlement Caps Sex-Discrimination Case

Observers laud the fact that the agreement lets Heidi Weissmann and her former employers keep their controversial debate alive Despite a recently announced out-of-court settlement in medical researcher Heidi S. Weissmann's seven-year-long sex-discrimination case against her former employers, each side still insists that it would have prevailed had the case gone to trial. While it is debatable whether the $900,000 settlement--notab

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Weissmann, formerly an attending physician at Montefiore Medical Center and an associate professor of radiology at Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N.Y. (R. Kaufman, The Scientist, Sept. 14, 1992, page 1), says she hopes the settlement of her United States District Court suit against the two institutions will "let women [pursuing discrimination cases] know they can have the courage of their convictions and be successful in the end."

Says Catherine Didion, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Association for Women in Science (AWIS): "The more we get this on the table--the good and the bad--the more we can be able to address it and get on with the science."

According to the settlement agreement, $35,000 of the amount constitutes back pay, $540,000 compensates Weissmann for pain and suffering, and $325,000 represents legal fees and expenses. An attorney for Weissmann, Edward S. Rudofsky of New York, says ...

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