Where Do Women Stand in the Financial Sector Today?

It's always been challenging for women to stand out in this men-driven world. In history, almost every professional sector has been ruled by men worldwide, especially the financial sector. 

In past years, it had been considered that it is men's job to earn and manage money, whereas the female population isn't allowed to make vital financial decisions. 

But things are changing lately. Women are equally contributing to the financial and insurance sector. In fact, many women are running multinational companies and making decisions related to stock investments, such as Katherine Salisbury, Ksenia Yudina, Trisha Price, and many more. 

Female involvement in financial matters has increased in every financial sector today. Be it running a team, establishing a company, or investing in bonds, women are making their presence known in the financial and investment industry worldwide. 

But the question is: whether female involvement in high-level jobs is still significant?

This article will highlight the different roles of women in the financial sector and why more female involvement is still required in the financial services. 
 

Female Share in The Global Financial Services 

Females might be getting more involved in top-level jobs lately, but their share in the market is still very low. As of 2019, women's global representation in major financial roles was only 20%, which is an improvement from 2016 when it was just 16%. 

That means female involvement increased only 4% in the A-league financial services in the four years, which is a shame. Further, if we tally country-wise data of women's involvement in the financial sector, even in the developed countries, the data isn't great. Just look at these figures;

• Australia (34%)
• US (26%)
• Singapore (23%)
• UK (20%)
• Hong Kong SAR (20%)
• France (20%)

In liberal nations like Australia and the US, female involvement in the top-tier financial roles is barely around 30%. On the contrary, if we talk about less liberal countries, the figures will go further down as follows:

• Switzerland (17%)
• Germany (15%)
• India (16.8%)
• Mexico (13%)
• Italy (13%)
• China (5%)
• Japan (5%)

Overall, females are more educated worldwide today, but they aren't part of the C-suite table yet. 
 

Why Women Are Still Not Performing High Financial Roles

Recently, McKinsey conducted a Women in the Workplace survey to understand the actual position of women in the workplace. In the survey, they consulted three types of companies to understand the role of women - banking and consumer finance, insurance services and asset management, and wholesale banking. 

The survey revealed that today men and women start their careers from the same entry-level in the companies. But when it's time for promotions and climbing the higher career ladder, only 19% of women reach C-suite. 

Attributions don't drive this low representation of women in senior positions. In fact, the same level of attributions is practiced by companies for men and women nowadays, except for the senior management. 

But when the time comes for growth, women stick to the entry-level positions, and men climb up the corporate ladder. 

This isn't something related to gender discrimination today. In fact, companies are nowadays open to gender diversity and prefer more women on the decision-making table. The problem here is more related to social issues. 

First of all, women don't have sufficient female role models in a senior-level position. They don't know anyone whose footsteps they can follow to lead the financial team. 

Secondly, females at higher positions are considered more dominating and unapproachable. The concept of female domination in financial terms has recently become more well-received in the adult sex industry as a fetish and has coined the popular phrase findom, in which a transfer of money from sub to Domme occurs as a form of submission.  Again we see here money proves to stand as the statement of power, but still, not many people accept women at higher positions. Thus, women themselves don't make much effort to grow in their careers because of their submissive nature in general or fear of being not accepted by fellow peers. 

Additionally, many women don't take high-level roles because they want to focus on growing their families and dedicate time to their personal relationships. This is someone's personal choice, so we shouldn't comment on it. 
 

Why Is More Female Involvement In Higher Job Positions Vital 

Gender diversity is a key for businesses to grow today. The diverse leadership can provide better opportunities and perspectives to modern companies to expand their operational area. 

For example, a report stated that hiring women for top-executive roles could bring more profits for companies. In the male-dominated venture capital sector, it is found that the same investment perceptions lead to lower returns on investments. 

In fact, the companies that have appointed 10% of female senior financial investors have seen a 1.5% spike in the overall returns on investments and a 9.6% increase in profits. 

All in all, women in the C-suite can bring more profits and return your way. Therefore, it is important for financial management companies to bring more women in the front position and provide them with better opportunities to shine. 

Here, one thing is very important; women's challenges and goals are different from men's. Thus, companies need to reshuffle their senior management policies so that women can better reach top financial positions.

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