INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
As a biomedical engineering student at Duke University, Priya Karani thought she did not have the right skills to break into the
maledominated field of Wall Street trading
talking to female college students about her job.
Despite such efforts Karani still represents a small minority since few women apply for
investment banks and conducts studies on behalf of its clients, found women generally account for 12 to 15 percent of trading roles, he
said.
There are no industry-wide data but the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which oversees US brokerages, said women accounted
for about 28 percent of individuals registered with it at the end of 2017
the emergence of the #MeToo movement and growing shareholder calls for disclosures on workforce diversity.
For example, Citigroup Inc and
Bank of America Corp released information on diversity and gender pay gap for the first time this year in response to calls from an
investment advisory firm.
Since last year, major employers have also been obliged to report gender pay gap data for their British
supports is one of several initiatives banks have introduced recently to make trading rooms more diverse.
Citigroup Inc does college
recruitment focused on informing young women about trading careers and offers them interview coaching, while JPMorgan Chase Co has been
running an internal program for the past two years called Women Who Trade, which offers networking for female traders of all levels,
global co-head of currencies and emerging markets at JPMorgan and a senior sponsor for the program
The bank has hired around 30 women through the program since 2016, it said.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc started its Trader Academy in London
last year, offering eight months of mentoring, networking and job shadowing for 16 female college students
The bank plans to expand the program to the Americas this year and Asia soon after.
Goldman has said it wants women to eventually make up
are so keen to improve their diversity ratios that one declined to make young female traders available for interviews out of fear they might
get poached by competitors.
Shareholder pressure aside, managers and some studies say hiring more women simply makes business sense.
David
Hesketh, chief executive of a London-based startup TradingHub said trading simulations the company ran in 2014 and 2015 for hundreds of
than half as often as men
describe an industry, which has left behind discriminatory attitudes common only a decade ago, but where women remain heavily outnumbered
2006 and 2009, recalled how just over a decade ago one investment bank was ready to offer her a job, but just could not imagine her on the
While she said she never felt marginalized on the job, she would sometimes get overlooked by brokers hosting social events- typically
involving watching a soccer game and a trip to the pub
already trying to help young recruits, offering networking opportunities and linking them up with experienced female traders.
