Women in Financial Services
Dave vs women
Mark.Freed / 04 Dec 2019
Good news for Davids. Bad news for women.
I saw a great statistic from Morning Star, a couple of weeks ago where they had run an analysis on UK-listed open-ended funds to explore the gender balance.
I doubt you’ll need me to tell you that women were very underrepresented. Only 105 funds had a woman in charge, out of a total of 1,496. And this is arguably a generous figure, as some of the women were running more than one fund, so the actual figure of female managers is just 72.
However, the interesting part was that 108 funds had a manager named David or Dave – three more funds than the total number of female-managed funds.
Diversity is essential in the investment management world, just as it is everywhere else. A wider variety of opinions and perspectives can only benefit companies – and if you go by what they say, most financial firms recognise the need to have more women in senior roles. However, the statistics suggest that far fewer are actually acting on this
While it’s tempting to suggest that the easiest way for a woman to get ahead is to change her name to Dave, I feel there is a better solution. Internal promotion is a slow and steady option, but for an instant effect companies need to prioritise female candidates at the interview process.
If there’s a senior male executive reading this, (possible named David), we will guarantee to give you three great female candidates for any role where you are currently recruiting. Just talk to us today to make a difference to your business tomorrow.
If you liked this article and would like to discuss this with me in more detail, please get in touch.
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