“You don’t look like an engineer!” Don’t I? What do I look like then?
Being a British Indian and raised in Spain, I’m no stranger to being in a minority. I liked maths at school – applied maths that you used in the real world – and went on to study Engineering at university. The course was made up of approximately 25% females: hence the comment above that was made any time someone asked what I was studying.
The ratio didn’t improve when I completed my first mechanical engineering internship where I was one of the only women in the office, with technical roles completely dominated by men.
Ten years on and, sadly, things have not changed significantly – at least in my experience. I mentor a young girl currently studying economics in a class made up almost entirely of boys. The top performers in exams are asked to stand up in celebration and, when she was one of the students to be recognised in such a way recently, a fellow classmate said they “couldn’t believe a girl was in the top five.”
Because when it comes to life’s opportunities, I firmly believe that you must talk to people from an early age about their options – otherwise it could be too late. Decisions are made, and your life takes a certain path without perhaps even realising where it could have led.
If you Google ‘Economist’ or ‘Engineer’, apart from an obligatory hard hat in every photo for the latter, the images that appear are encouragingly diverse. So, it’s sad that attitudes are still so narrow-minded.
How can we #inspireinclusion?
When it comes to the investment world, there are no barriers to women entering our industry. But what I have found is that passion and natural confidence can open more doors than necessarily the perfect skillset.
At Gravis, I’m pleased to say that the investment team today comprises of around 40% females. Not quite parity, but not far off. I’m the Diversity and Inclusion Champion for the company, sitting on the responsible investment committee, presenting ideas, and putting our plans into practice. We pledged to 10,000 Black Interns for the second time this year and have also started taking interns from Young Women into Finance – where I met my mentee.
That’s one of the reasons why Gravis is also supporting the Academy of Real Assets – an outreach programme to state schools, helping young people to write CVs and develop skills such as presenting.
Sowing the diversity seeds
My diversity and inclusion work are supported by my colleague Marcel, an advocate for women in finance, and someone who has used the 10,000 Black Interns programme himself. Having been previously employed by an Inclusive Leadership consultancy, working with c-suite executives, he learnt the difference between diversity and inclusion.
“Diversity is like sowing seeds, and inclusion is the soil,” he says. “If the environment isn’t hospitable enough for the person to be their authentic selves, then they will find it hard to grow. It’s easy to change a metric but infinitely harder (and more rewarding!) to change a culture.”
Looking to the future…
Change doesn’t have to be immediate or radical. Lots of small changes can make an enormous difference. But these changes have to be led from the top of the organisation.
50:50 job interviews would also be ideal, and we should encourage recruiters to find female candidates suitable for these roles, especially at the more junior level where this should be an achievable goal. Unfortunately, this becomes more of a stretch as we recruit senior roles – that’s why we need change to start at school age. Careers days play an essential part in this, helping young people think about what they are passionate about and how they can turn their interests into a career.
…and looking the part
How would I like to be ‘seen’ in the industry today? As an investment professional. Pure and simple, with no prefix, no categorisation – not a ‘female fund manager’ or a ‘person of minority’. Because, in that world, diversity would be commonplace, and the monitoring of statistics would be unnecessary.
