The low level of gender diversity in upper echelons is well documented in a wide range of fields. Recent research shows that the problem is particularly bad in finance, where gender diversity is lower than in other academic disciplines.
Indeed, the research found that finance ranks just 132nd out of a total of 175 fields, with just over 10% of thought leaders women. Interestingly, while these women are lower in number, they generally outperform their male peers.
Outsized impact
The researchers regard “thought leaders” to be those who rank in the top 2% of their respective field in the Scopus database. The proportion of women in this group was lower in finance than in the other STEM-based fields, which is somewhat surprising as finance tends to attract younger participants than fields such as economics.
While the researchers focused on the upper echelons of financial academia, they note that similarly poor representation is evident at all levels, from incoming PhD students all the way through to tenured professors. Indeed, this is also evident in financial roles in industry, where women are heavily under-represented.
The researchers believe that this discrepancy is likely to be because the culture in academic finance is less welcoming and supportive to women than it is to men. This is problematic, especially given the outsized impact female academics have compared to their male peers.
As well as cultural barriers, the researchers also believe that women’s beliefs about the level of innate talent required to thrive in finance are often not correlated with the representation of women in thought leadership. This isn’t the case for men, which suggests that women’s beliefs are a barrier to their progress.
This lack of diversity not only harms the financial sector but also the wider economy and society itself. For instance, a lack of diversity can mean the sector is less innovative than it could be, while it could also be less welcoming to women than it should be.
The researchers also suggest that our trust in finance tends to be greater when we perceive that it reflects the values and the makeup of society more broadly. As a result, they urge academia to actively work to change its culture so that more opportunities for introspection, reflection, and discussion about these various issues are provided.
Central to this should be acknowledging the crucial role gatekeepers play and how we might work to diminish their influence. The academic sector, including journals and academic associations, should strive for greater transparency so that more is known about how powerful positions are filled.
The aim has to be for decision-making to be as unbiased as possible and for organizations to commit to such a relatity. It is generally only when the “rules of the game” are transparent and clear that we can hope to achieve a more level playing field for all.
