From a standing start 15 years ago, Canada’s Women in Capital Markets (WCM), has come a very long way. A recent luncheon in Toronto, held to mark the release of a report commissioned from Catalyst for WCM, drew more than 400 participants; the event was co-sponsored by several of Canada’s largest financial institutions including KPMG and the six largest banks. However, the report, “Women and Men in Canadian Capital Markets: an Action Plan for Gender Diversity,” had some disappointing conclusions. Despite much effort, women have made discouragingly slow progress when it comes to representation at managerial and executive levels.
In her opening remarks, Martha Fell, WCM chief executive officer, emphasized that the report, which was a year in the making, breaks new ground by calling for concrete, measurable action. She also noted that companies need to move beyond familiar statements of the problems to practical solutions: a key theme of the report was that those solutions should include holding senior managers to account for the representation of women at senior levels in their organizations.
The report was based on interviews with close to 100 senior managers in Canada’s largest six banks last fall. While those discussions revealed a wealth of good intentions, the report also makes clear that there is a long way to go. For instance, in 2008 women employed in the capital markets sector held only 10% of positions at the level of managing director or above: in 2000, the figure was 11%.
The report notes that these figures remain stubbornly low despite significant increases in the number of women graduating with business-related degrees. For instance, in 2008, women earned 53% of degrees in business and management, and accounted for more than one third of MBA graduates. They also made up 62% of workers in the finance and insurance industries.
In an address at the luncheon, Beth Wilson, a managing partner at KPMG in Toronto, noted that it is time to address “the tough stuff” when it comes to helping women move into more senior roles. A major component of change, she said is the need for greater active involvement from the top of organizations.
Her firm began taking more aggressive action in 2005 and has achieved some success: 24% of the firm’s partners are now women and representation on KPMG’s 13-member management committee has moved from one in 2005 to its present level of four. The firm has also undertaken an active sponsorship program to increase the number of women among the pool of people who are considered for leadership positions. Taking active steps in this area is not easy, Wilson noted; “they require a sense of commitment and leadership and really being honest with yourself about where your organization is at.”
A panel discussion, with executives from Goldman Sachs and Xerox Canada helped drive those points home. Jim Muzyka, senior vice president and general manager at Xerox, noted that, even though his company has a strong record of promoting women, dating back to the 1960s, it has still found itself having to make greater efforts to increase the number of women in key roles.
Failing to do so, he noted, can lead to a competitive disadvantage for companies, due to what he called “the scourge of like-mindedness.” That is, when too many new employees are drawn from a single demographic group — male hires who think just like the men who are hiring them — the result can be a business that is less agile and innovative due to lack of new ideas and attitudes. Muzyka also called on companies to re-evaluate work cultures that emphasize hours spent in the office over actual productivity. Otherwise, companies are likely to struggle to retain their best people in the future, he said. “It’s women who are turning it down now, but in 10 years, everyone will be turning it down.”
Edith Hunt, chief diversity officer, human capital management at Goldman Sachs, also emphasized the long term business costs of failing to fully integrate women into a firm’s structure. She noted that companies in the fast-paced, client-oriented, capital markets field are particularly reliant on their people. “In a war for talent, there is no demographic group that owns talent,” she said. “If you limit yourself only to the traditional white, Anglo Saxon straight male, you’re cutting off 7/8ths of the universe and 7/8ths of the talent in the world.”
She also noted that fostering a sense of inclusiveness is vital to the advancement of women in the close-knit and intense working environment of firms like hers (the report describes the culture of some capital markets firms as “boorish”); people who feel they have to wall off part of their lives and personalities (as working mothers sometimes report that they do) undermines efforts to retain and promote talented women employees, she said.
The report takes the form of a guidebook and includes several suggestions and recommendations for specific steps that companies can take to boost the number of women at senior levels. It is available at: http://www.catalyst.org.