By: Lara Pereira

It is with no surprise that women have stepped up to the plate and succeeded in a male-dominated business industry. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2017, nearly 52% of all managers were women. It has been three years since that statistic launched and women are only moving up in the ladder of businesses and big corporations. However, there are still some fields of business where women are underrepresented.

Finance is a major field where women are underrepresented, specifically in financial analysis. In 2017, 39.6% of women held positions in the field; however in a research study conducted by a professor at the University of California Davis in 2019, he found that only 18% of finance jobs are occupied by women which is less than any STEM field. Jobs try not to discriminate by gender, so why are there so few women in finance?

In the study, the professor found that there are some barriers that discourage women from entering the field. In being a very extensive and time-consuming field, it rewards those who work the longer, inflexible hours which often women are unable to do once family comes along with maternity (if applicable).

In Isenberg itself, only about 15% of finance majors are females. Although the number is increasing, it is still lower than other majors such as Marketing and Management in which women are taking up a little over 50%. Thanks to opportunities like Isenberg Women in Business, women are able to become more confident in conquering all types of fields within business as a whole.

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The present is crucial to a growing future. As women, it is our duty to empower each other in accomplishing the thought-to-be “impossible” and succeed collectively. In times as early as junior-high school, young girls need to be mentored on a number of fields that they could involve themselves in through programs and internships. Over the next few years, it is hopeful that big financial corporations will offer programs for young girls to become exposed to a field in which they are underrepresented to produce an entire generation of female financial game-changers!

Sources

https://gsm.ucdavis.edu/post/why-so-few-women-finance

https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/womens-databook/2017/home.htm