Despite efforts by finance firms to raise their female quotient, women remain an endangered species in Swiss banking. Four experts delve into why.
By Anushanth Selvam, Fondstrends
«Thirty years ago, it was impossible for women to have a career in banking», Maria Albericci, the chair of wealth planner Chefinvest, noted. She was one of four prominent female Swiss bankers discussing the dearth of women in the finance industry at Finanz’19, an annual financial market conference in Zurich.
(Maria Albericci, Marionna Wegenstein, Claude Baumann, Sibylle Peter, Sita Mazumder, left to right)
And yet the four women denied that banking is inherently misogynist when asked by finews.com founder Claude Baumann, who hosted the panel. Private bankers for instance always had been deferential towards women, said Marionna Wegenstein, founder and owner of Wegenstein Communication. Many private banks at one point were owned and run by families, and women therefore had featured more frequently as owners and executives.
Outside private banking however, the lack of female executives is much more pronounced. This may in part have something to do with the need to be available at all times – especially in the roles that are crucial for the generation of revenue. The panelists said that many women didn’t want to live up to such demands and preferred more flexible working patterns.
Tech vs Banking
Their understanding of a work/life balance was unlike the one of their male colleagues. It was a question of an absolute commitment that many women wouldn’t and couldn’t give that held them back. Wegenstein said that when she returned to business after giving birth, she faced certain limits simply because she wasn’t as geographically flexible as before and because she required a part-time role.
However, the old role model of absolute dedication was a thing of the past, the panelists agreed, with more and more men also demanding more flexibility. The insistence by the banking industry that high-ranking managers can’t work part-time was outdated, with the tech industry showing how it worked. This meant that graduates nowadays preferred joining a tech firm or an agency over a bank, the previous number-one, said Sita Mazumder, professor at University of Lucerne.
Career Risks
Banking has started to adjust to the new demands and both women and men are getting better support for their needs, said Wegenstein. But one thing wasn’t going to change: after the financial crisis, banking became much more stringently regulated and therefore, taking on a job with high responsibility also required assuming responsibility during a crisis.
«Women have to be aware that fines – and in the U.S. and U.K. in particular – even prison sentences are fully possible,» said Mazumder. Knowing this kept many women from going for the top.
MeToo «Too Extreme»
«The current #metoo movement is too extreme,» Mazumder said. Even if radical measures are needed in order to effect change in rigid structures, she said she hoped for the pendulum to swing in the other direction – and for a constructive debate around potential improvements.
She views culturally embedded gender roles as a fundamental problem; these give rise to unconscious biases which skew how men and women are viewed in the workplace. Mazumder said these biases are to be recognized and fought. She was echoed Mazumder in calling for a more pragmatic approach to performance and potential, instead of gender as a criteria.
«Without a cultural shift, any changes we are making now will ultimately die», Mazumder said.
- The contribution originally appeared in German on fondstrends.ch
