Pervasive Gender Based Discrimination Still Exists
This is part 3 of a series that shares real stories of sexual harassment, assault, and discrimination in financial services. You can read more about the genesis of the project, as well as the other installments to date on the series landing page.
Despite advances in hiring and pay practices, women working in financial services in the US are paid less on average than their male counterparts and are underrepresented at the senior leadership and board levels. The statistics are even bleaker for women of color. As the stories below illustrate, pervasive gender based discrimination still exists. Of the stories I heard, office discrimination was the smallest subcategory of stories, likely because it’s hard for women to know exactly when it’s happening; we see the results but not the discrimination itself. Often women don’t know we’re being discriminated against because the discrimination happens behind closed doors in meetings to which we are not invited or present. Those stories are not included here, but please keep them in mind. We also may not know we’re being paid less because many private companies discourage (or even prohibit) compensation discussions among employees.
Below are stories of workplace discrimination incidents as told by the women-in-finance who experienced them. The stories are shared with their permission, in the words of the women who wrote or spoke them to me. I edited some submissions for clarity, length, and to remove identifying details of all parties.
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I was offered significantly less salary as a man for the same c-level role the man had just left, despite having more relevant experience.
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Throughout my career, even with my advanced degree (B.S. and MBA), I often reported to a male manager with no advanced degree and sometimes with even less experience.
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Despite being an accomplished executive and public speaker, I was offered a speaking slot at a conference only if I agreed to write name tags at the conference registration desk.
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When I worked as a strategy analyst, which requires a thorough understanding and familiarity with statistical analysis, the company promoted a male manager who knew nothing about strategy and struggled with statistical concepts. I had to tutor him. His exact words to me were “please dumb down your presentation,” so he could present it as his own in executive meetings. He was made manager of a complex strategy analysis group based solely on his “potential.” On the other hand, when I received the highest rating of excellence in my performance review, and after fulfilling the duties of a higher-level job, I asked for greater compensation or promotions. Some of the responses:
A male manager said that, despite excellent reviews, I’d have to continue proving to him and the rest of management that I could do the higher-level job for “a few more years” before they would give me the actual promotion (not the male “potential” standard).
Although my manager agreed I’d been working hard, doing vice-president-level work and was deserving of a promotion to that level, it would be better if I applied for the promotion by myself—rather than him promoting me—or, alternatively, apply for such a position at another company.
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I was part of a five-person team and my manager invited everyone on the team except me to a poker night at his house. When I asked him why I was left out, he said the absence of women would make the guys feel freer to relax. In the end, my manager apologized and invited me to the game, but it was clear I was not wanted.
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When my supervisor left our company, he told management that I had been doing most of his job for the six months prior (while he had been occupied with issues outside of the office) and that I was the right person to take on that role. The company told me that I could take the role, as a trial run, but with no pay increase or title change.
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Now What?
How can we make financial services a more equitable field for women? There are loads of resources on how to promote, retain, and pay women equitably at the company level.
I don’t pretend to have all of the answers but below I’ve offered a couple ideas to consider at the systemic level, and a couple at the individual behavior level. But before we jump to working on solutions, I urge you to first continue listening to women’s experiences to better understand the problem.
Systemic: Working toward gender equity isn’t just the right thing to do, it pays well too. According to a recent McKinsey study, “companies in the top-quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 21% more likely to outperform on profitability and 27% more likely to have superior value creation.”
Evaluate hiring, promotion, retention, and compensation policies, perhaps with help from an outside third party, to ensure the systems you have in place do not favor an existing overrepresented group at the expense of women and other underrepresented groups. While your company is working toward gender parity, ensure you are including women of color in all of your efforts.
Consider pay transparency, which recent research shows reduces the gender pay gap.
Individual Behavior: As an individual, at any level of a financial services organization, you can start today by letting the women you work with know that you read this article, are aware of the issue, and are trying to learn and do better. Invite them to give you candid feedback if they want to; and if they choose to give you that feedback (now or later) listen to and learn from their insight, without being defensive. If they don’t give you feedback, don’t take it personally- they may not feel comfortable doing so, may not have feedback to share, or may be too busy.
If you are a man with a woman counterpart in a similar role, offer to chat about salaries to make sure she is earning the same as you are.
If your company is working on this issue, I would be happy to share learning resources (and will share more in the upcoming articles), and I would be pleased to help you advance the conversation at your next conference or event.