Latching onto the Erin Callan newspeg, Bloomberg releases this story today on how women, who for years struggled to achieve parity with their male counterparts to rise to the highest echelons of Wall Street, are finally catching up in one key category: losing their jobs.

When Erin Callan was removed yesterday as chief financial officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., she joined Zoe Cruz as the most senior women on Wall Street to fall victim. Callan followed a half dozen chief executive officers at financial institutions who have been replaced since the subprime mortgage market collapsed a year ago.

"The market, as everyone has discovered, takes no prisoners," said Janet Hanson, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive who in 1997 founded 85 Broads, a women's networking firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut. "I passionately believe that Lehman got caught in a short-selling 'riptide' and as a result, they made the best, although saddest, decision they could on behalf of their employees and shareholders."

Lehman, the fourth-biggest U.S. securities firm, said Callan, 42, who was promoted to CFO six months ago and became the first woman named to the firm's executive committee, would return to the investment banking unit. She was succeeded by co-chief administrative officer Ian Lowitt. The bank also said President Joseph Gregory, 56, would step aside for Herbert McDade, 48, head of the equities business worldwide.

Cruz, 53, was Wall Street's highest-paid female executive as co-president of Morgan Stanley when she was ousted last November by Chairman and CEO John Mack. In August, Cruz placed 34th in a Forbes magazine list of the world's 100 most powerful women, the highest ranking of any woman on Wall Street. About a month before she lost her job, Cruz was named one of the 25 most powerful women in New York's financial circles by Crain's New York Business.

Media Attention

Cruz and Callan became subjects of media attention just before losing their jobs.

Cruz, who avoided the media for most of her career, was identified as a leading candidate to succeed Mack in the weeks before she was dismissed. Callan appeared on television and was the subject of newspaper features and a profile in the April issue of "Portfolio" magazine, which called her "The Most Powerful Woman on Wall Street." She also became the public face for Lehman in a battle with David Einhorn, a hedge-fund manager and Lehman short-seller.

A third prominent female executive, Sallie Krawcheck, 43, ran Citigroup Inc.'s wealth-management division, rose to CFO, then was returned in January 2007 to her previous job, a move interpreted by some on Wall Street as a shift to a lower-profile position.

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