One day there may be no women in banking (except bankers' daughters)
On a day in which nepotism has been unearthed at Goldman Sachs, with David Viniar's stepdaughter on the payroll (and Lloyd Blankfein's son to be on it soon), it also emerges that intelligent young women who aren't necessarily the progeny of senior bankers, don't particularly want to work in the industry.
In a poll of 450 female students at Oxford University, 85% said they thought they'd face discrimination in financial services, more than in any other area of the economy.
This prognosis appears to be translating into applications. According to one leading bank in the City, women rarely applied for graduate positions before the financial crisis. Now, their enthusiasm is lower than ever.
"In IBD, trading and technology it's become very difficult to attract female applications," says the head of graduate recruitment. "It's even worse at MBA level."
Helen Bostock, an independent consultant and former global head of campus recruitment at Credit Suisse and global head of graduate marketing at JPMorgan, says the problem is so acute that, historically even, most banks were lucky if 20% of the people they made offers to in technology and trading were women.
"The problem in trading is that there are very few female role models," says Bostock. "You get more women applying to back and middle office areas and to asset management. This tends to make the percentage of female applications look more reasonable across the board."
The head of graduate recruitment says potential female applicants appear to be favouring consulting instead. She thinks they're being put off IBD by the perception that it's incompatible with motherhood.
However, one female MBA student at the London Business School told us she's under no illusions that consulting is any better and would be more than happy to apply to banks, long hours and the seeming shortage of senior women not withstanding: "The hours are very long in consulting too. It's not really an issue for me, or for my female friends."
