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Keeping up with the spirit of women’s history month, we’re going to talk about women and their role in the financial and economic industry. Throughout history there has been a huge gender gap in the financial industry with men taking the lead and dominating while women, for the most part take the back seat. Although in recent years, this ratio has gotten closer to evening out there are still a significant number of women who are not seen in significant leadership roles, especially in prominent financial companies. Today, women are taking up more than half of the entry level workforce. According to Deloitte Insights, globally within the financial services institutions, women held 21% of board seats, 19% of C-suite roles, and 5% of CEO positions in 2021. With statistics like these, it can easily be observed that the top roles in most financial companies are owned by men. So where are all the women? Where do they fit into this field?
Historically speaking, women have traditionally been known to be the one to take care of the children and the home while the men were meant to be the breadwinners and on the job working. This rhetoric rang true for hundreds and hundreds of years even up until the mid to late 20th century, making it easier for women to be more inclined to work entry level desk jobs as opposed to say a role as Manager or VP. Today there could be a few reasons as to why we are seeing a lack of female leadership in the financial and economic sector. One of which may be the fact that there are not a lot of female role models for them who are paving the way in this industry. Another common reason that seems to be growing in popularity recently is that women are beginning to take on the more traditional roles of being a stay at home mom and taking care of her house first and foremost. A lack of support from peers and or management along with a lack of investment in young women especially is also an often overlooked reason for this scarcity.
However, despite this, there have been quite a few prominent women who have taken center stage in this field both internationally and locally. Janet Yellen being one of them. Yellen is a seasoned American economist and the first person, and woman of course, to hold the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury and Chair of the Federal Reserve. She accomplished this while also leading the White House Council of Economic Admissions. Needless to say, she is definitely someone who has earned the title of role model in the financial and economic sector.
A local prominent female figure in the economic arena is Wendy Craig, CBE. Craig was the first female Governor of the Central Bank of The Bahamas in 2005 and served as Deputy Governor of Central Bank for eight years prior to this. Starting out as just a central banker in 1978, she was promoted just two years later to Economist in 1980.
As time continues to go on, we are seeing slowly but surely that more women are making their way into the financial services industry and gaining more recognition but there is still much more work that needs to be done so that women would be fully able to thrive in this field. As the saying goes “women supporting women” is one of the most important things that we can do in this day and age. Creating a sense of community for women who want to elevate themselves in the corporate world whether that be through organizations or even stand-alone workshops is crucial. There are much more opportunities that are opening up for us and mentors that we can look to for guidance. This will all lead to barriers being broken and the status quo being changed.
