Commentary: The gender inclusion equation — fostering longevity for women's careers in finance

As two women CEOs in the world of investment management, we've personally experienced the challenges of working in male-dominated spaces, but we have also seen the progress made across the institutional industry to recognize women's incredible potential and forge paths forward.

We know the financial industry has work to do, including a collective responsibility to ensure that individuals who have chosen this career path — those within leadership, managers, employees — have the training and knowledge to attract and retain women.

Recent data from McKinsey & Co. reports a stark reality. While we are seeing more women interested in a career in finance and pursuing it at the entry level, there is much lower representation at more senior levels. This trend is more pronounced when we look at asset management. As noted in Ellen Carr and Katrina Dudley's recent book, "Undiversified: The Big Gender Short in Investment Management", Bella Research Group and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation have found that 0.9% of U.S. investible assets are being managed by firms that are majority-owned by women or minorities. Hard to believe, isn't it?

Every day, and especially during Women's History Month in March, it's critical that we not only highlight those women that have broken the "glass ceiling," but also champion women who face unique challenges at each stage of their career journey.

What can we do to identify and recognize these individuals and help support young women to reach their full potential?

One critical component is building a pipeline of women who are attracted to institutional asset management. The deeper and stronger the talent pool, the greater the chances to grow these women's careers over time.

Continuing education and credentialing programs that are designed to lift the veil and demystify what a career in this space looks like are crucial. When we provide on-the-job training and education designed to amplify the strengths of individuals, regardless of gender, we create a safe space for women to explore their ambitions and visualize themselves within a career in finance.

And the demand is there: growth of women candidates in our programs demonstrates this. At CFA Institute, we've achieved gender parity among our candidates within the CFA program in some of our largest markets, and globally, nearly 40% of candidates are women. The demand can also be seen through the raw number of participants in the Girls Who Invest programming for students, which now receives thousands of applicants each year and has grown from 29 participants in its inaugural cohort to more than 500 participants across both of its programs in 2021.

Make no mistake: Tremendous momentum exists from women who are ready to break into financial services. How we choose to embrace these individuals is a key piece for success.

Once we have more young women in our organizations, keeping them engaged and invested must be another priority.

Our ask of employers and managers is threefold and centers around communication:

• First, evaluate your hiring practices to ensure not just that women candidates are included, but also that the interview questions are fair and equitable.
• Second, have transparent conversations about compensation — let people see the meaningful financial potential of their roles.
• Third, ensure that each person has a trained and inclusive manager, mentor and sponsor.

Pay attention to those who are achieving great results but perhaps aren't receiving the commensurate recognition; results should speak for themselves, but additional amplification is invaluable to advancing a career. Take an active role in ensuring that women are fully supported and have access to both substantive feedback and people of influence.

Communication is key to fostering inclusive working environments. Creating open dialogue for employees to share their thoughts with their peers and with leadership stands as an important way to learn how individuals truly feel — and to get information directly from the source about their lives both inside and outside the office. What challenges are they facing? What opportunities are they ready to stretch for, or where would they like to spend more of their time? These conversations are even more impactful as the next generation prioritizes purpose and meaning in their work, even above compensation.

Communication must be a two-way street, from the top down and the bottom up. The days of dictates from the top that fail to capture the essence of workplace culture and employee concerns should be over.

As the leaders of two organizations within the institutional community, our roles require us to have honest conversations with investment firms about changes they can make to their hiring processes to help attract a more diverse talent pool. We encourage firms to think about the raw transferable skills that a candidate brings to the table rather than their collegiate resume. After all, it's hard to teach someone to think critically, and it is very possible to teach someone accounting and modeling.

It's also important to re-evaluate how you assess candidates beyond the initial resume review. How do we create and evaluate measures of potential rather than pre-existing qualifications? We need to make sure those measures are fair, equitable and accessible. For example, disqualifying candidates without advanced finance coursework severely limits your pipeline to elite finance programs and can lead to historically excluded communities continuing to be so. How can we do this well? It all comes down to asking the "why." If a hiring manager wants someone with prior internship experience, ask why to get to the bottom of the business need. Does the job require a specific skill? If so, are you evaluating for that skill? Can you teach that skill in-house? Is prior experience truly necessary?

Let's face it, recognition matters. Praising women at all levels of the organization represents another important action that we have to make a priority. It's an opportunity that is incredibly easy to embrace, but so rarely done. It is so worth the time it takes to write the email or speak out on a group call. These individuals are often hidden in plain sight, but when we take the time to identify and recognize them, the benefits we realize are exponential.

In a hybrid work environment, where face time is at a premium and women can feel siloed, we must be even more intentional about how we recognize the contributions of our teams. The virtual environment has allowed us to be present in more places and has opened doors to individuals who otherwise may have been excluded.

When we lead by example, the impact is contagious throughout an organization. We can and we must continue to celebrate women across all levels and encourage meaningful dialogues to expand the inclusion equation for employees. We're confident that the investment industry will become a more inviting place for women when we hold ourselves accountable for doing the work to make that a reality.

Margaret Franklin, CFA, is president and CEO of CFA Institute; Katherine Jollon Colsher is president and CEO of Girls Who Invest. They are both based in New York. This content represents the views of the authors. It was submitted and edited under Pensions & Investments guidelines but is not a product of P&I's editorial team.