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W O M E N
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T R A D I N G ]
“Awareness, flexible
working schemes and an
increase in successful
female role models
have started and should
continue to help.”
VICTORIA KELLY, HEAD OF EUROPEAN
TRADING, FIDELITY INVESTMENTS
work. For women who are return-
ing to work from maternity leave,
an initiative like this is encouraging
and often necessary. Aberdeen’s
Drummond says she is hoping the
programme will make a big dif-
ference and go some way towards
improving the gender balance.
Other initiatives such as the
FTSE 100 gender balance have
helped to expose the gaps and
spread the word about the positive
impact of closing it. Awareness,
flexible working schemes and
an increase in senior female role
models are all growing and should
continue to help drive the numbers
of women remaining in the city.
Banding together
Statistics from July 2016’s ‘Female
FTSE Report’ show that the overall
percentage of women on FTSE
boards has increased compared to
March 2015. The FTSE 100 gender
balance scheme aims to increase
this and the statistic proves this has
made some difference. It includes
26
TheTrade
Spring 2017
a voluntary target of 33% represen-
tation of women for the FTSE 100
executive pipeline by 2020.
“Initiatives such as the FTSE
100 gender balance have helped to
socialise the gaps and the positive
impact of closing it. Awareness,
flexible working schemes and an
increase in successful female role
models have started and should
continue to help increase the num-
bers of women remaining in the
city,” says Kelly.
There’s a sense of female buy-sid-
ers are banding together to encour-
age other women to join the asset
management sector. The majority
of women traders responded pos-
itively when asked if they would
encourage female friends to join
the asset management industry.
Burnside says she would abso-
lutely encourage women to join
the industry, as it’s an interesting,
challenging and dynamic environ-
ment to be a part of. However, she
warns any woman looking for a
career in asset management should
be comfortable working in an envi-
ronment where men are still more
represented, and she adds the same
applies to clients and counterpar-
ties too.
McLean explains there’s a real
drive for gender diversity in the
industry and that’s not just at board
level but also across all levels. “The
knowledge of this will hopefully
encourage more women to move
into asset management where
they’ll be supported and encour-
aged to climb the career ladder,”
she says.
There is work to be done. Many
buy-side firms contacted about the
issue of female employees either
declined to comment or replied ex-
plaining they had no women on the
buy-side at all. One thing is certain,
those women who are a part of the
industry, do not feel as though their
gender has particularly hindered
their progression in climbing the
asset management career ladder.
Perhaps it’s time we get the word
out...