Australia’s senior finance women call for focus on merit, not quotas
A new industry organisation aimed at senior women in financial services has claimed that quotas are unnecessary when it comes to ensuring women reach their full career potential.
Additionally, the group says that the most common reason why women are overlooked for promotion is because they simply fail to apply for roles or promote their credentials to their superiors.
According to the founder of the group, Judith Beck, most women reject the idea of being given a role simply because the company wants to increase its number of senior executive women.
“It’s often the companies that think they need a quota system because it has been pushed by minority groups and government, not the executives themselves. But women are assets not quotas and most feel quotas categorises them and leads to ridicule from colleagues who may believe they were promoted because of a quota rather than merit.”
Ms Beck is the Founder of Financial Executive Women (FEW) and Managing Director of Financial Recruitment Group. She said FEW has been established to provide a supportive community that gives women impartial, confidential advice to help them take their careers to the next level, based on merit.
“FEW will support women in progressing their own careers. We are very excited that the idea is resonating within our industry. Some of Australia’s most successful women are behind FEW as Founding Members and major financial organisations have come on board as corporate sponsors.
Foundation sponsors include NAB/MLC, Colonial First State/Commonwealth Private, the FPA and Equip Super.
Ms Beck said her 20 years experience in Executive Search within Financial Services had shown her that smart, educated, driven women are often not as effective as their male counterparts in taking their careers to the next level.
“For more than 10 years, I have been managing the FRG salary survey. What was disappointing in surveying executive managers was the lack of women applying for key internal roles. Often Managers would comment that not one female had applied for roles they should have been lined up for. As a consequence the roles would then go to their male counterparts and sometimes males who were taking a step up.
“When I quizzed women at the firms on why they had not applied, they would usually say it was because they did not think they ticked all the boxes in terms of skill set. A man does not think like this. He thinks, I have four out of the ten necessary skills, I’m the best man for the job,” Ms Beck said.
“Women need to stop waiting to be tapped on the shoulder and offered the job. What our parents taught us was polite as females, does not work in the corporate world. You can’t sit back and wait to be asked, you have to let them know what you want.’’
FEW will help women by providing a career advocate outside of their current organisation, who will help them in their career by providing guidance, truth and honesty without the conflict of interest issues an internal mentor may face.
“We will be pairing our members with advocates who hold senior positions and have taken a similar career path in financial services,” said Ms Beck.
In addition, FEW will help women develop better networks and stronger profiles within their own company and in the market. FEW has also developed an online forum where members feel free to discuss business issues on a daily basis in strict confidence with other members, who are bound by the same ethics, trust and confidentiality.
Ms Beck said; “FEW wants to ensure women progress in their careers not because quotas need to be filled, but because they are the best person for the role. We want to ensure they are given the proper guidance by experienced advocates within the industry to give them the best chance of presenting themselves in the workforce and for new positions that they apply for in the future within their own organisations. We are not the minority, we need to realise that and have confidence to achieve our goals and take charge of our careers.”
