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If you have ever felt intimidated by big corporate careers in the finance world, you may not have to anymore. Big banking isn’t just for men these days – it is (slowly) becoming a gender-neutral field.
Anne Finucane – vice chairwoman at Bank of America – thinks the banking industry should approach gender equality by reconsidering how it recruits women. Finucane says that not only should banks employ women in internships and entry-level jobs, but they should also give them increased options for later on in their career.
“We have to be better at mid-career, when some [women] fall off because of having children,” she told The Huffington Post. “And that’s fine, but I think we need to have a way to onboard them back into the company.”
Finucane believes that having kids shouldn’t end a woman’s career endeavors. She acknowledges how difficult it is for women to come back into the corporate workforce, so she and Bank of America are beginning to develop a way to bring back mid-career women. She tells women not to give up when they decide to have a child.
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She personally has four kids and three stepchildren – yet she still manages to accelerate her career path. Her story shows how women don’t have to compromise their careers even if they have to step back for some time.
When a company is accommodatingg, motivated women are often just as successful as their male counterparts. And the statistics prove it – 30 percent of Bank of America’s executive team are experienced women.
However, Bank of America isn’t the only large corporate bank that wants to make the change for women. “J.P. Morgan, Goldman, and Citigroup are reaching out to specific groups of women in an effort to close a gender gap at the top,” according The Wall Street Journal. These big banks acknowledge the dropout rate among women in banking and are taking the initiative to have a more targeted way of recruiting.
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The Wall Street Journal states these companies have added “programs, symposiums, and events aimed at specific subsets of high-potential women across age groups – from recent college graduates to midlevel professionals to those looking to re-enter the workforce after taking time off to care for children or other dependents.”
These big players in the industry recognize the obstacles that women have to face. Instead of brushing off the problem, they are implementing new strategies to include women in their businesses and encourage them to come back to the workforce. These banks say that their efforts are indeed paying off.
American Banker lists 25 impressive women in the banking industry including Karen Peetz and Ellen Costello. These ladies serve as powerful role models for women looking to make it big in the “boy’s club.”
Even if a business is in a male-dominated field – such as banking or STEM – it doesn’t mean that these companies aren’t looking for female employees. #WomenThatDo need to actively take advantage of increasing opportunities and not look at familial life as an end to their careers.
READ MORE: Here’s How Google Is Encouraging Young Women to Pursue STEM
