Today is International Women’s Day, and it’s a day to both celebrate the advances we’ve made in our society, and to challenge ourselves to continue to do better. When we look at the financial services industry in particular, we can claim amazing strides over the last decade while also recognizing that there remains a long trek ahead to become the inclusive industry we aspire to be.

Although women represent about half of those in the financial services industry, we still see significant imbalances:

• Only 6 percent of CEOs in finance are women. ¹
• Women make up only 20 percent of executive committees and 23 percent of boards. ¹
• Only 15 percent of advisors in the U.S. are female. ²
• Globally, women represent 12 percent of CFOs in large cap firms and 34 percent in mid cap firms. Only 8 percent of CFOs in the U.S. largest 1,000 corporations were CFOs in 2019. ³
• The financial services industry had a 24% gap in the rates of first promotions of women and men (in spite of asking for promotions at the same rate). ³
• Only 11 percent of the current operations leadership in financial services is female. ³
• In banking and consumer finance, women comprise 50% of those entering the industry in entry-level positions, but the gender gap gradually increases going up the leadership ladder, with only 42 percent of women serving as managers and only 27 percent as senior vice presidents. ³

At Arnerich Massena, we are proud of our history of gender balance across our leadership and advisory teams since our founding in 2001. We recognize the value that diversity brings to the investment and advisory process; read our white paper, Women in Investing: Why balanced gender representation on your advisory team helps lead to success to learn why we believe that long-term outcomes can be improved for our clients with a gender-balanced team.

We continue to break barriers — for instance, by having a female Co-CEO and a Leadership Team that is evenly divided among men and women, by having significant female representation among our employee owners, and by having an advisory team that is balanced between men and women. We are committed to mentoring and fostering young female leaders in the industry, and we remain dedicated to providing our clients with the benefits of having a diverse team serving their diverse needs.

On International Women’s Day, here’s to all the women who have refused to back down from a challenge, who have defied the status quo, who have encountered and overcome a lack of institutional support, who have been brave enough to forge ahead when they are the only woman in the room, who have lent a hand to other women on their way up, and who have insisted that all women be heard and seen and recognized. Happy International Women’s Day to all.

¹https://www.oliverwyman.com/content/dam/oliver-wyman/v2/publications/2019/November/Women-In-Financial-Services-2020.pdf

²https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/women-as-the-next-wave-of-growth-in-us-wealth-management#

³https://www.catalyst.org/research/women-in-financial-services/