Finance Is The "Most Lopsided Industry" When It Comes To ...

According to the MSCI World Index, finance is the most lopsided industry when it comes to?appointing women as directors and promoting them to management positions, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.?The index shows how banks, insurers and asset managers in the index of stocks in 24 markets have a disproportionately low percentage of female board members compared with employees, 51% of whom are women. Finance also scores lowest in matching the percentages of women workers and managers.?It?s ?reprehensible for an industry to have a high level of women employees and a low level of women in management and on the board,? said?Joe Keefe, chief executive officer of Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based Pax World Management LLC and chairman of the nonprofit Women Thrive Worldwide in an interview with Bloomberg. ?It is evidence of failure to hire, to promote, to retain and to mentor the women.?

Another recent?study?confirms what those of us with eyes and ears have been thinking for years: white men on Wall Street still get paid more than women and minorities. While financial firms in the New York area have been hiring more racial minorities and women over the last decade, the biggest paychecks still go to white males, according to a new study by the?City University of New York?s Center for Urban Research.?The median compensation for a white man in the financial industry between 2005 and 2009 was $154,500, 55%? more than that for a white woman.

Many women face this kind of discrimination in other industries but finance is one of the toughest, especially for those that want to have families and succeed. In the U.S., women account for only 2.7% of the chief executives in the financial industry, and 16.8% of the executive officers,?according to a study by Catalyst. Women are frequently overlooked for promotion and receive less mentoring and sponsorship than male peers, according to a report last year by?Mervyn Davies, former CEO of Standard Chartered Plc in London.The lack of women in leadership positions hurts the women coming up through the trenches that have no female mentor to look up to and aspire to be like.?Wendi S. Lazar, a partner at the law firm Outten & Golden, who has long represented female executives in finance, told?The New York Times. ?I see the same pattern over and over again,? she said. ?The women who make it to a position where they?re really going to jump up to a high level absolutely get set up to fail at that level, because the hierarchy remains male in this business.?

Helena Morrissey, CEO of Newton Investment Management Ltd., in London and founder of the 30 Percent Club, which seeks to boost women?s numbers on boards, called the disparity between women employees and directors ?rather patronizing.? Damn right, Helen. ?Well, at least the index showed industries where women are being respected and getting promoted.?The materials sector, including mining companies, does best in balancing its female workforce and directors, even though only 18% of its employees are women.

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Photo:?Antonov Roman/Shutterstock.com

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Source: http://thegrindstone.com/office-politics/finance-is-the-most-lopsided-industry-when-it-comes-to-promoting-women-900/

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