Women in finance - breaking down barriers and stereotypes

While significant progress has been made in achieving gender equality within the financial services industry, Milana Pokrajac and Bela Moore find there is still a long way to go. 

Related: Financial services’ top female executives

Here’s a question for you. If someone told you their friend worked on Wall Street, who would you picture? 

Chances are you would picture someone in an expensive suit, a sky-high salary and a car to match the image. But you did not picture a woman, did you? You assumed it was a man – and there is a reason for that. 

The financial services industry both here and abroad has always been perceived as a boys’ club – an environment where meeting rooms are populated by men and social gatherings revolve around football, golf and pubs. 

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In an age of political correctness where gender equality is preached on a daily basis, there is still a Mad Men-esque vibe coming from the financial services industry. But why? 

A survey conducted by recruitment company eFinancialCareers found almost two thirds of Australian finance professionals believed gender discrimination was still apparent in the finance industry. However, perception of this discrimination varies greatly between the two genders. 

Only half of men – as opposed to 84 per cent women – said that gender discrimination existed in financial services. 

“The industry has already lost some of its gloss in recent years, but if women’s perception of gender discrimination in financial services is as bad as they report, then companies will continue to struggle to attract women into the industry,” said George McFerran, managing director of eFinancialCareers for Asia Pacific. 

That’s not to say that the industry isn’t trying to diversify its workforce and encourage more women (and other minority groups) into senior ranks.

All Big Four banks, as well as AMP, Macquarie Bank and a range of investment management groups, support Women in Banking and Finance – a not-for-profit organisation which provides a forum for professional women in the industry. 

There is also the Women on Boards movement, as well as the League of Extraordinary Women, which was founded by Wealth Enhancers managing director Sarah Riegelhuth (who was also a finalist in last year’s Money Management Financial Planner of the Year award). 

When executive general manager of Colonial First State (CFS) Linda Elkins started her career in financial services 17 years ago, it felt very much like a boys’ club.

She told Money Management that, while the industry has come a long way since then, there is still an element of that culture. 

“You still hear comments about women getting the job because they’re women or comments on the women in senior roles,” she said.

“I wouldn’t say that culturally the industry is all the way to where it needs to be, but there has been a very significant change and as leaders in the business we are now continuing that cultural change,” she said. 

Elkins added that, apart from hard work and being good at what she does, her success can be attributed to a good support network both at work and at home. And then there is the personality. 

“I always try to be careful to not say ‘well I’ve made it, so can you’; I had a pretty high tolerance level to the boys’ club culture, whereas there would be other women who would have found the experience far more intimidating.” 

But the culture has since shifted dramatically, Elkins said. Certainly in the advice and retail banking industries, companies seem to be doing more to create a diverse workforce in order to reflect a diverse customer base. 

Funds management a different story 

On the other hand, the Association of Superannuation Funds Australia (ASFA) chief executive officer, Pauline Vamos, said gender diversity was less apparent in the funds management sector. 

“It’s changing in banking but certainly in financial services - funds management is interesting,” Vamos said. 

“You just have to look at finance magazines - page after page of men.” 

But it came down to self-promotion, according to Vamos. 

“Men are much better at saying ‘I’m fantastic’, men are much better at getting themselves out there – we should learn from that,” she said. 

According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), of the 142,400 employees from financial and insurance services companies in 2011-12, 79,414 were female (55.8 per cent) and women made up almost 50 per cent of all full-time staff.  

Women made up the lion’s share of part-time and casual workers too, with 88.6 per cent and 66.1 per cent respectively. 

Although women clearly account for more than half of all employees across the financial services industry, WGEA reported that only 33.6 per cent of all full-time managers were female and only 7.5 per cent of financial services chief executives were women. 

In November, Federal Parliament passed the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 which sought to shift the focus from equal opportunity for women to gender equality. 

WGEA executive manager for partnerships and communications, Yolanda Beattie, said once the reforms were bedded down, data on gender break-down by management level would be available – but information from companies that participated in its census revealed women were lacking in upper management in the finance industry. 

“Women are under-represented the higher you go up the corporate ladder and that’s not unique to finance – obviously it’s across the board,” she said. 

President of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees and national chair for Women in Super, Cate Wood, said that the new legislation would be another step in the right direction, but blanket strategies would not address the varying levels and sectors of female under-representation. 

“There appear to be less women in certain occupations or at certain levels, and there’s going to be a need for specific strategies to try and address that,” she said.  

Creating a balance 

Beattie said the inability of workplaces to map out career options and learning, development and promotion options that allowed women to balance their careers and family commitments meant women were generally out of the workforce during a critical period in their careers. 

“If you don’t jump on the career acceleration bandwagon at that time, you miss out on the opportunities, the learning and development, training and promotion opportunities to move into those senior management roles which then take you up to upper-level opportunities later down the track,” she said. 

Companies needed to employ innovative thinking to make it happen, according to Beattie. 

The new reforms include a mandate to promote the elimination of gender discrimination in relation to employment matters, including family and caring responsibilities. 

Wood said companies needed an attitudinal shift with regards to flexible work arrangements for both women and men if policies were to stick in the long-term. 

She cited research that showed men were often denied access to flexible work practices or avoided taking advantage of the offer because they knew it would reflect badly in the eyes of their superiors. 

But Vamos had concerns about mandating flexible workplaces. She said good people would often be accommodated by companies wanting to retain talent. 

“My fear around mandating flexible workplaces is we don’t want employers to avoid employing women because they have to be flexible,” she said. 

AVSuper chief executive officer Michelle Griffiths said flexible work arrangements worked with the right mix of person and job. It was suitable when she worked in the fashion and music industries, but may not help women in finance snag the top spots. 

“You do need to be on the ground in this industry, particularly in finance,” she said. 

AVSuper staff took advantage of structured and unstructured flexible work arrangements, Griffiths said, but it had to be carefully managed, which was not part and parcel with the finance industry. 

“The finance industry does not do it that well. Few managers actually know how to gear their management efforts towards people ¨ who don’t have access from 9-5,” she said. 

Quotas 

That the financial services industry needs to become more ‘woman-friendly’ is something the world has been hearing for a long time.

Besides creating a more flexible work-life balance, there are other things that could be done, according to Financial Recruitment Group managing director, Judith Beck. 

The group recently established a new industry organisation called Financial Executive Women (FEW), which is aimed exclusively at females in the highest ranks of the financial services industry. 

She said quotas could be set for boards and universities. 

“At board level they are appointed and that’s the representation of the workforce of that organisation,” Beck said.

“A quota at graduate level could also work because graduate intakes should be 50 per cent boys and 50 per cent girls.” 

But everything in between should be based on merit. 

The Financial Recruitment Group found that women are often not as effective as their male counterparts in taking their careers to the next level. Women weren’t applying for key roles, its surveys indicated. 

“What was disappointing in surveying executive managers was the lack of women applying for key internal roles,” Beck said. 

FEW had been established for that particular reason – to provide a supportive community that gives women career advice and encouragement to step up. 

Beattie said quotas did not work without a viable female talent pipeline. WGEA did not support them as they could lead to the wrong person being promoted. 

“If you look at the case in Norway where they have mandated quotas, they haven’t put sufficient policies to create a female talent pipeline,” she said.  

“You have these female executives, particularly at board level, being parachuted in without the necessary requisite skills and experience, or you end up having certain women – a small pool of women – being over-represented on boards so you’re not getting that depth of talent,” she said. 

As part of a “quota” herself during the days of affirmative action, Vamos said she would not have gotten the job without it.  

“Had that quota not been there, even though I was a high performer, I would not have been put on that team and I was the only woman – it was a bit of a boys’ club at that time,” she said. 

The latest Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) audit into board diversity found progress was slow – only 24 female directors were appointed in 2012, increasing their overall numbers to 15.5 per cent. Compounding the issue, 25 per cent of these held multiple positions. 

Vamos said she supported soft quotas, particularly at board level, but getting the position did not make it any easier. 

Although females could be characterised as the “token woman”, quotas were an opportunity for women to show what they were made of, according to Vamos. 

“Bottom line is once you are there, that’s when you can really show your stuff; so I made sure from day one they did not regret me being at that table,” she said. 

Vamos said women had to prove their value every day. They had to be organised, understand every aspect of the role and every opportunity, and most importantly, women had to sell themselves. 

Wood supported the measures under the incoming reforms. She said the first step was setting targets, having proper policies and strategies to achieve them, and being transparent about it. 

But although the industry had been talking about it since the ‘70s, there had been no real permanent structural change – which was very disappointing. Slow progress may mean quotas were necessary, according to Wood. 

“If society can’t come to grips with it or employers can’t come to grips with it in a reasonably short time frame now, then I would support quotas, because there’s been a lot of opportunities to change,” she said. 

Griffiths said she did not support quotas – although they might not hinder, they probably would not help. 

“I didn’t need quotas to get me where I am. I just needed hard work, ambition and the right employer,” she said, although she conceded education was key to her career. 

Peer group 

Beattie said one challenge for senior women was the lack of fellow female peers to act as role models and mentors in senior management positions.  

“As women move up the corporate ladder they are increasingly isolated because there are fewer and fewer women the more senior they go,” she said. 

“The way you tend to see people move through leadership roles is a tap on the shoulder, somebody going, ‘you’re a talent, you’re an up-and-coming leader, let’s move you through the pathway in this organisation’.”  

Because men already held the top spots, this worked against gender equality. 

“Like tends to gravitate towards like, and you have various different conscious and unconscious biases there which means that men tend to get tapped,” said Beattie. 

Wood’s tap on the shoulder came during a family break and, surprisingly, from senior male staff who recognised that her talents would lend themselves to the super industry. 

Although she had received support from male counterparts, she said it was in no way the norm. 

Wood said Women in Super had started because of under-representation in the industry. It was one of many industry voices working to improve women’s issues, including the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST), with which it partnered to launch Super Springboard, an education and mentoring program for aspiring women board members. 

“Every extra voice you can get is a big plus¨they (gender equality issues) would drop off the agenda if someone’s not continuously pushing them,” she said. 

Vamos said diversity was important because it led to better business decisions. She said although she had a majority female staff, she was not biased. 

“I have had the situation where I had a fantastic male and fantastic female and I took the male because I got the diversity. They were both 10/10, but for the organisation I took a male because I had an all-female senior management team,” she said. 

The incoming Workplace Gender Equality Act recognises the need for equal employment opportunities for both men and women, including remuneration. 

It also aims to improve the productivity and competitiveness of Australian businesses, an issue that McKinsey & Company’s Women Matter research highlighted.

It found businesses with three or more women in senior management positions scored higher on criteria related to organisational health and saw better financial returns. 

Diversity of leadership behaviours, such as men’s tendency toward individual decision-making and corrective action and women’s success with collaborative decision-making and health concerns, led to better performance, it said. 

Vamos agreed. 

“That’s the problem with so many male-dominated organisations; they’re talking to men and not so good at talking to women, and if you’re selling something, who’s your major purchaser?” she questioned. 

She said she made sure women were given a public profile to promote their talents. 

“You look at the ASFA conference last year; there were women on the stages, there were keynote speakers. I promote women’s profiles and encourage women to put articles in Superfunds magazine,” she said. 

Griffiths said movement was going to require generational change - and that women needed a solid educational foundation. 

“I am very, very conscious that education was the difference for me. A good solid education is the difference between where I am today and being a checkout chick at Coles with six kids,” she said. 

But Griffiths said it would not happen naturally. Senior men and women needed to implement the policies and experience it in their working lives to see the benefit of gender equality, she said.