Why Are There So Few Women in Finance?
Do me a favor. Name at least one man who has made a killing working in the finance industry (and no, Leonardo Decaprio from Wolf of Wall Street does not count). Maybe you thought of Warren Buffet, or maybe you thought of someone you know in real life. Now, do the same thing for a woman. If you could think of an influential woman in finance, great. If you couldn’t, don’t worry. You are not alone. But, it does not have to stay that way.
Finance has long been advertised as a boys club. And that’s because it is. In a research paper presented at the Women in Finance Conference, Professor Brad M. Barber of UC Davis Graduate School of Management highlighted the fact that women only account for 18% of finance jobs, a statistic far worse than the prevailing trend in STEM. Yet, for some reason, this is not often considered a problem is not given the importance it deserves. We need Women in Finance, and not just as ‘diversity’ hires.In order to understand why, we have to venture beyond Wall Street.
To do this, I asked college women why they didn’t want to get into finance. Here are some of the responses I received:
“There were so many guys in the (finance) club orientation and it was hard for me to find common base with any of them as many of our experiences did not overlap.”
“Not to complain, but usually, I feel like even if I try my hardest, the man who is competing against me gets the gig because he knows someone on the inside already.”
“ Every single time I raised my hand in class to ask a question, I was made to feel dumb. So, eventually, I stopped.”
“ I’m just bad at math.”
Most of these quotes exhibit the isolation and lack of support that women trying to break into finance experience. The last quote especially stuck with me, because it is one of the reasons highlighted by Dr.Barber and his co-authors in their paper. What he calls the “Math Gender Gap,” is a phenomenon that deters women from venturing into math because they might not score as high as their male counterparts do. Further, women are often made to feel like they are competing with other women for the same spot and this promotes an unhealthy competition within a group that should stick together and support each other. This is why it is imperative for institutions, scholars and general peers to understand the intersectional obstacles that women face and address it in order to boost retention rates of women in this field.
Each and every single one of us can help change this trend. Whether it is providing words of encouragement, forming support groups or just standing up for our peers when others belittle them, any action on our part will help in changing the statistic for the better and making finance a field that is fostering and conducive for women and other minorities.