On June 12th of this year, Lehman brothers removed their CFO, Erin Callan and demoted her to another position within the bank. This came on the heels of Morgan Stanley´s move to dismiss Zoe Cruz from her position as co-president. While these decisions were made as a result of the heavy deficits both firms have suffered of late, it does remind me of the disappointing reality that though women have made great strides in the workplace and on Wall Street, there remains an astonishing absence of women from executive Wall Street positions.

Of course, failing to fire someone who is accountable for a firm´s poor financial performance just because she is a woman is not what I, or anybody bothered by the Women on Wall Street gap would advocate. But these recent demotions of two of Wall Street´s most powerful women should allow for some open discussion about why it is that more women are not choosing to work on Wall Street and why it is that once they are there they are failing to rise up the executive ranks in the same numbers as their male colleagues.

I was pleased to find that most buzz surrounding the demotions of Callan and Cruz did not focus on that fact that they were women executives who were losing their jobs but simply that they were executives losing their jobs.