Men continue to outnumber women in all capital markets’ jobs; and despite some gains in professional positions, the proportion of women in senior management positions hasn’t changed since 2002, a new study confirms.

Catalyst’s Report to Women in Capital Markets: Benchmarking 2005, released on June 22, says that women’s participation in capital markets remains largely unchanged since the study was last conducted in 2002.

The study reports that, overall, there were 5,729 women in the Canadian capital markets industry in 2005, down from 6,002 in 2002. There are now more women on the investment dealer side than in 2002, but fewer on the retail private client side. And despite absolute gains in the number of women at the vice president and managing director levels and above, the proportion of women at these levels remains the same.

This is the third such survey; the first two looked at women’s participation in capital markets in 2000 and 2002.

“I think the bad news is that the numbers haven’t really changed,” says Jacqueline Szeto, president of Women in Capital Markets, the non-profit organization that commissioned the study. “Roughly one in five line positions is held by women.”

Still, Szeto sees some positive news in the results. Women at the professional level have increased to 23% in 2005 from 20% in 2002. Women’s participation in the investment dealer business increased to 26% from 23% in 2002. And in the retail private client side of the business, women held 12% of positions as managing director and above, up from 8%.

Szeto, who is also vice president and managing director of debt capital markets at TD Securities Inc. , is encouraged by the reaction to the report. She says she was “shocked” to see a number of top-level managers from financial firms attend the presentation of the survey report in Toronto on June 22.

“We had very senior management,” she says. “Not just presidents and CEOs, but heads of investment banking, heads of equities, heads of fixed-income all showing up to the event. It really showed the commitment the Street has to make a change, and this is not something we have seen in the past.”

Beyond the numbers, the report also contains “best practices” — examples of successful programs used by financial services firms to promote and retain women. For example, Coventree Capital Group Inc. has a flexible work environment and a policy of recognizing individuals’ needs to make it easier for women to balance work and home responsibilities. TD Bank Financial Group has an “accountability framework” under its diversity program, to put pressure on managers to achieve gender-diversity targets in the workforce. And CIBC has mentoring programs for women, among other programs.

Szeto says the industry has recruitment programs in place, including outreach programs in high schools and universities to make young women aware of the job opportunities in the capital markets and the educational prerequisites for those positions.

However, the industry could do more on the recruitment side. Retention is the biggest challenge in building up the number of women in capital markets, and raising a family is the main — but not the only — reason women leave the industry, she adds.

“Once women get in, firms are being more accountable in making sure they have equal opportunity, and are not stereotyping,” Szeto says. “You can talk all you want about promoting women and advancing women. But if you don’t have a plan in place, nothing is going to happen.” IE