We Need to Close the Power Gap in the Finance Industry

By Dr. Marlene Puffer

I recently gathered with an esteemed group of investment professionals in New York City. They included senior executives of the world’s leading asset owners, private equity, asset management, and carbon management firms.

We were there to discuss one topic: Why aren’t more people like us leading these organizations? That is, why aren’t more women in positions of power?

This question, unfortunately, was not unfamiliar to any of the women in that room. Gender parity does not exist in corporate North America. In 2023, a McKinsey survey of almost 300 corporations found women represented 28 percent of C-suite executives, while racialized women represented just 6 percent of the total. Canada’s Big Five banks are all helmed by male CEOs and, while the best laid plans have been made to pull women up the ranks and there is progress on board membership, we have yet to see a woman CEO at any of these institutions.

Canada’s Maple 8 – the top institutional investors responsible for investing over $2 trillion on behalf of Canadian pensioners – fares a bit better with a single female CEO. Deborah Orida at PSP Investments stands firmly on her own.

This glass ceiling is disappointing and tiring. Those of us who have spent our careers in this industry have been staring up at it for far too long. Numerous male allies are looking up with us, aware of both the barriers present for women and the resulting impact on organizations.

Some will argue the issue needs to be addressed at the educational and career entry level, but most university programs in Canada see more than 50 percent women graduates, who complete impressive programs and earn impressive degrees. In particular, gender discrepancy in the workplace is increasingly striking through higher ranks of power. Gallup’s Women in America: Work and Life Well Lived report found that 45 percent of employed women aspire to become a CEO or earn a position in senior management or leadership. They desire to lead and are qualified to lead. And yet, director-level women between the ages of 30 to 40 are leaving at a higher rate than in years past – considerably more than men.

The reasons for this are complex, but it is clear that systemic inequality and unconscious bias in the workplace perpetuate disadvantages for women and racialized persons, no matter how talented or capable they might be. 

The business case for diversity has been well-supported by years of research that documents better financial performance when leadership is more diverse. Innovation is stifled when there is a lack of diversity in decision making roles. Familiarity breeds comfort and complacency, and the best challenges to existing norms require male leaders to look beyond the people who are similar to themselves. Further, if everyone in a seat of power looks, sounds, and thinks the same, unconscious bias continues to keep seats of power occupied by those that fit the existing mold, limiting the opportunity for certain groups, and hindering diversity and employee growth. Part of the solution, to me, is very clear: we need more men in leadership roles who actively sponsor women, to propel them to the top of the leadership ranks and who call out bias when they see it.

At AIMCo, CEO Evan Siddall is a deeply committed ally and advocate for inclusion in the workplace, who clearly sets the tone from the top and takes concrete action. Since joining the organization in 2021, Evan has brought five women executives to his leadership team – today, there are more women executives than men.

One of the reasons I accepted the Chief Investment Officer role was to be a more visible woman in a high-profile role. As Evan says, it’s hard to aspire to be what you can’t see. As a neurodivergent, cisgender woman in the finance industry, I have faced countless barriers in my career, and often, I have been the only woman at the investment table. It’s because of these experiences that I feel a responsibility to support the talented women and other underrepresented groups who are currently moving up the ranks in finance. I seek to engage allies to help remove systemic roadblocks and create opportunities in the hope that their career paths may be a little easier than mine. I haven’t shied away from leading candid, and frankly difficult, conversations with our investment partners on the lack of women represented on their leadership teams, challenging them to be bold in their actions.

Reshma Saujani, CEO of Moms First and founder of Girls Who Code, recently spoke to the 2023 graduating class of Smith College about imposter syndrome. Her commencement speech highlighted the power of systemic inequality for women in an entertaining yet relevant way. She shared the history of ‘bicycle face,’ a phenomenon described in the late 1800’s to discourage women from enjoying the empowering freedoms associated with cycling. She thoughtfully equated this issue to the present-day notion of ‘imposter syndrome,' an idea that puts the onus on women to change who they are to better fit into the working world around them – the idea that somehow elusive career progression is due to their actions, self-belief, or lack thereof rather than due to the systemic issues that need addressing. If you haven’t listened to her speech, I encourage you to do so. It highlights the need for the workplace to adapt to create opportunities for talented women to thrive, not just survive.

As I sat with my peers in our New York City office, we noted the slow progress that’s been made over the past decades. Now is not the time to ease our efforts to ensure the equal advancement of women in finance. This is not the time to cut programs designed to attract and maintain under-represented talent that bring diverse perspectives to make better decisions. This is not the time to diminish Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives.

This is not the time to stop asking a question that some may consider old hat: Why are so few women in leadership positions? Because until the data show that gender equity has been achieved, we’ve got work to do.