On fighting the boys club and building role models in financial services
- Three women leaders from the industry dive into their experiences with bias and lack of representation of women in tech in the financial services industry.
- An exploration of how lack of representation impacts communities and how organizations can do better.
What role do women play in financial services? If we go back three or four decades, the answer would be drastically different than it is today. In 2024, women are leaders, business owners, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, bankers, board members, engineers, regulators … they are stakeholders and hold positions of power.
But they didn’t always. And some of the senior women leaders in the industry still remember how different attitudes used to be when Silicon Valley was experiencing its first days of glory. “Looking back on it, there were nuances to that workplace that we would consider a toxic culture now that I don’t think most corporations would ever allow in the workplace,” said Michelle Boston, Bank of America’s CIO of data management technology.
The need for a role model
The treatment gets worse as the degrees of “other” increase —Michelle Boston, a Latina who describes herself as “hooked on data” recounts how Hispanic and Latino communities haven’t had role models that look like them. Having these, would have helped solidify the possibility of success in the minds of young Hispanic and Latina women.
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