We are celebrating International Women’s Day today and shining the spotlight on the work done by so many inspirational women right across the financial services sector.
In this personal story, Invesco EMEA Fund Manager, Alexandra Ivanova, takes us on her own 20-plus year journey in the male-dominated world of finance. Alexandra tells us how and why she believes the benefits of increased diversity will be to the benefit of everyone. And she has plenty of practical ideas on how we can go about it too!
Lone wolf
I started my career at the turn of the century, having spent nine years in education. During my university years, there was a healthy balance between female and male students who were equally talented and motivated.
When I entered the workforce, I looked around and frequently found myself being the only woman in a team – first in a small boutique firm, later in an IT department and then at the trading floor. In fact, reflecting on my career, I was never interviewed by someone other than a white male manager.
Role models, or lack thereof
Early in my career, the ladies who were in powerful positions were those that exhibited more male behaviours that I personally couldn’t relate to, although I had truckload of admiration for their success. It all made sense, back then, to be successful and rise to the top, you had to beat men in their own game. These women were exceptions to the rule.
False start
About 15 years ago, the industry started openly speaking about inclusion and diversity. It was an exciting time to be a rare female in the department to meet others within the firm or within the industry. Our company created women networks as a platform to meet other female colleagues and share experiences, frustrations, and, more importantly, gain an ally.
However, the term inclusion was defined in ‘teaching’ women to be more assertive, self-confident, and fierce. The problem was, these are not inherently female traits and trying to fit-in on a constant basis was exhausting and yielded little. Just look at the industry diversity statistics all these years on!
Hope
Today, the conversation has moved on. We are less focused on why we are here, but more on what we can actively do to make a change. It’s about inclusivity in its true form where people bring their true selves to the workplace. It’s about diversity that is celebrated rather than augmented to fit it.
Studies show that improvements in hiring and development process, mentorship, personal development are all imperative. However, they are not sufficient conditions to make tangible changes in gender balance within the industry. It starts with an individual, and most importantly, the individual decision-maker.
Decision-maker equity
Not a single manager sets out to build a non-diverse team. We are all humans and have subconscious biases. If we achieve equity in decision-making seats, I believe the change will come naturally. It starts at the very top senior management and board level, and trickles down into middle and lower-level management positions that are key in building a naturally inclusive places to work in.
Become an ally
We need to educate all decision makers in business to understand the benefits of diversity to profitability and improve the quality of the service we offer. Be a true ally to your managers and guide them to be intentional in their efforts to become inclusive and thoughtful leaders. We are in it together.
Redefine the definition of talent
Many internal promotions are often based on ‘earned’ tenor and experience on the job. Those are valuable but not entirely so. We could redefine talent with the focus on future impact, creativity, collaboration, and future potential, rather than the amount of experience and number of years within the industry. This also goes hand-in-hand with gender pay gap issue – we think those decisions are based on objective factors like the length of time served. But are they truly fair? We didn’t have young women joining the industry in droves twenty years ago to earn the longevity premium. It is easy to refine these structures that would result in profound impact.
