Few women join the banking boys' club

29 October 2007

2 minute read

When former St George Bank chief executive Gail Kelly moves across to become CEO of Westpac next February she will still be the only female in Australia to head a bank.

While all the major and second-tier Australian banks have experienced businesswomen on their boards as non-executive directors, women are still very much in a minority across the banks' senior executive management ranks.

This is also despite the fact that all the banks have 'diversity specialists', or equal opportunity experts, working within their human resources teams.

Luke Heath, chief executive of recruitment firm Chandler Heath, confirms the sad truth: women are still under-represented in senior roles within the banking sector.

"For every role, we see somewhere between 5% and 10% of the candidate pool is female. Even at graduate level, we disproportionately see male applicants ... and the further up the pyramid you go the thinner it gets. It's not related to talent or drive, it's the small numbers on the way in."

Robin Billen, of Horton International, says the lack of women in banking is also evident across other sectors.

"You could say that banking is a bit of a macho industry, something of a boys' club, but the absence of women affects a range of private-sector industries."

Heath says the banks are genuinely interested in having more women in roles but are finding it difficult to achieve their aim. Now may be the time for women who'd like a financial career to give them a helping hand - simply by sending in their CVs.

AUTHORTony Kaye

Insider Comment

An
Anonymous
15 February 2008
Diversity consultants in HR have good intentions but this does not translate to action when the business influences hiring.
Competant women with excellent experience are often overlooked and it takes years to be rid of bad males hired because of people they know.
I agree that women need to do a better job in broadcasting their achievements and stop believing that modesty is a virtue!
Reply
Wo
Would love to hear some opinio
2 November 2007
James,
Was glad to have my views confirmed by a recruiter. I completely believe that reverse discrimination exists, but it will never be 'tagged' that way in the industry due to the fact that it sounds impossible to discriminate against men (the majority of the banking workforce).
Quite frankly, I feel it's a crock. Again, it demonstrates a complete lack of equal opportunity to incoming candidates - women really seem to have the upper hand in this day and age. As a man, it's quite scary to know that I might be overelooked due to the need to fill the spot with a woman.
Maybe I should turn gay/into a scientologist/say I'm really old/anything to make me a minority. Perhaps that is an effective way to fast track my career through the equal (oops, I mean unequal) opportunity channel.
What a joke. Companies are really losing sight of simply hiring the 'right person' for the job. Perhaps the next big push should be to get more male secretaries, more women as army commandos, more men as makeup artists and manicurists, more men working for women's magazines & tiny Asian women as security guards at Kings Cross nightclubs. That'll really solve the problem - we can all be asexual!!
Reply
An
Anonymous
2 November 2007
What do you mean the 'nex trend'. By the looks of what you are saying, it seems like it is occurring already!
Reply
Ja
James Freer - Freer Consulting
1 November 2007
The above points have are valid.... however, over the past 10 years of recruiting banking and finance roles at all levels. I have been privy to receiving briefs from senior/heads of divisions to source female bankers. My belief is the next trend will be reverse discrimination against their male counterparts. Women are being fast tracked in some cases twice as quickly as the men, to move into management roles. The chess board pieces are changing, it is every banks mandate to hire females in the droves, and in some cases some of the banks are insisting shortlists contain at least one female. Why.... banks need to live and breath equal employment opportunity and the big one "diversity".
Reply
ha
hahaha
31 October 2007
Don't know what recruiters you are speaking to (or, for that matter, what observations you are making). I'm Asian, so not offended about the Asian comment you made - I just have no idea where you see this occurring.
The numbers in banking are indeed based on models, but DCF models are not an 'abstraction' of reality. They do not deliberately make 'simplifying' assumptions (i.e. assumptions that ignore that certain aspects of reality - such as economic models). If we are talking about unknowns, then eveything in the future is 'unknown'! As all industries rely on some sort of projection, there is no basis by which to argue that banking is any more abstract than most other professions.
Blokey culture may be a turnoff to some women...indeed...is that some sort of discovery? Have you ever considered that a bunch of women hanging around and talking about Brad Pitt or what they bought when they went shopping on the weekend is a turnoff to men?
What I mean to say is 'what is the point of your comments?' Men are men and women are women. Big woop. Get over it and understand that it will never change.
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