AU
Few women join the banking boys’ club
29 October 2007
When former St George Bank chief executive Gail Kelly moves across to become CEO of Westpac next February she will still be the only female in Australia to head a bank.
While all the major and second-tier Australian banks have experienced businesswomen on their boards as non-executive directors, women are still very much in a minority across the banks’ senior executive management ranks.
This is also despite the fact that all the banks have 'diversity specialists', or equal opportunity experts, working within their human resources teams.
Luke Heath, chief executive of recruitment firm Chandler Heath, confirms the sad truth: women are still under-represented in senior roles within the banking sector.
“For every role, we see somewhere between 5% and 10% of the candidate pool is female. Even at graduate level, we disproportionately see male applicants … and the further up the pyramid you go the thinner it gets. It’s not related to talent or drive, it’s the small numbers on the way in.”
Robin Billen, of Horton International, says the lack of women in banking is also evident across other sectors.
“You could say that banking is a bit of a macho industry, something of a boys’ club, but the absence of women affects a range of private-sector industries.”
Heath says the banks are genuinely interested in having more women in roles but are finding it difficult to achieve their aim. Now may be the time for women who'd like a financial career to give them a helping hand – simply by sending in their CVs.
Quite frankly, I'm sick of this 'women and the glass ceiling' topic. If you are right for the job (black, white, male, female, ALIEN) then that's ALL THAT MATTERS! Unlike many 'power hungry' men, many women may simply not want to sacrifice their entire lives at the office i.e. there are more important things to them than money i.e. family.
Good on Gail Kelly. She is a very, very intelligent woman with amazing presence. From what I have seen of her, she is a natural leader and seems to be the right person for the job.
I'm all for equal opportunity - totally and utterly 100% for it. However, we must not lose sight of the fact that if we push this 'equal opportunity' stuff too far then we are going to end up with the wrong person for the job, simply because their genre/sex/ethnicity is under-represented. That is definitely not equal opportunity - that is straight out bias.
Do the math...If only 5% to 10% of applicants are women then expect only 5% to 10% of the top jobs to be held by women!!! That's a bit of a no brainer!
Boys club? That's a corporate phrase that means nothing. Wherever you work (whether Maccas of Macquarie) it will always exist, not just at a bank!
Would love to hear some opinions... 29 Oct 2007
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