Bloomberg works to break the bias for women in finance through ground-up mentoring
March 29, 2022
Starting education initiatives early
To truly set women up for success in their future workplaces, change must start in schools – and not simply in terms of curriculum.
“We need to address sexism in the workplace that makes girls and women feel they don’t belong, or are not good enough,” said Andrea Navarro, News, Mexico City deputy bureau chief and a volunteer for our Financial Literacy workshop in partnership with Mexico’s non-profit Interactive Museum of Economics (MIDE). Last year, we launched an annual financial literacy program to support young women interested in learning about personal finance and the economy. This year, more than 150 young women attended.
“It’s often said that men are better suited for careers in finance and STEM,” Navarro added. “That discourse desperately needs to change and we need to highlight the historical contributions of successful women so younger ones can see for themselves what’s possible.”
Halfway across the globe, similar outmoded gender narratives can keep girls from even considering studies in tech and finance.
“In Japan, some parents still say, ‘You are a girl so you don’t need to be good at math or science,’” said Noriko Suzumura, Sales, Tokyo, a volunteer with Corporate Philanthropy partner Junior Achievement, a Nobel Peace Prize-nominated program providing lessons in financial literacy, work and career readiness, and entrepreneurship. Alumni of the Junior Achievement program have been shown to be more likely to have a college degree, feel confident about managing money, have successful careers, and to have started a business as an adult.
“Students in Japan are required to select either the ‘science’ path or the ‘liberal arts’ path at the age of 15, and once selecting ‘liberal arts,’ it’s difficult to change paths,” Suzumura added. “Changes can happen at home amongst families if adults can show role models and actual examples of successful women in finance. Changes can also happen at school, and of course, at the government level to implement a system to encourage more girls to proceed into such fields. We all can empower and encourage girls and women by speaking and working with them through volunteering.”
At Next-Gen Connect, Junior Achievement’s female university students across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East connected with financial professionals from Bloomberg Women’s Buy-side Network and mentors from Bloomberg for a unique networking experience offering insights into the paths available in finance from leading talent in the industry.
Earlier in March, Bloomberg partnered with seven financial companies including BlackRock, Credit Suisse, HSBC, Macquarie, Morgan Stanley, Nomura and Royal Bank of Canada along with 6 NGO partners to organize the Your Future in Finance Initiative, aiming to provide a 5-week training and mentoring program for 50 female university/college students from low-income communities and ethnic minority backgrounds in Hong Kong.
Make it happen here.
Training, upskilling, and networking
After starting young women on the path to pursuing tech, science and finance in education, conscious steps must be taken to help sharpen their skill sets and introduce their talents into the professional world. Two key components to this process: training, and representation.
“It’s important to start with encouragement and have the right tools in place for success,” said Vanessa Onwe, New York Analytics and Youth About Business volunteer. “Promotion also plays a major role in decision making. Women in STEM need to be seen and compared to their male counterparts in an equal and fair way. Giving women and girls something to work toward and the ample resources to do so goes a long way.”
In 2021, Bloomberg welcomed three new non-profit partners, including Youth About Business, into its summer finance program, part of its growing programming with Girls Who Invest, another intensive training and mentorship program. This month, the Corporate Philanthropy team hosted an in-person networking event for alumni of the Girls Who Invest program, in partnership with Bloomberg New Voices, Bloomberg Gender Equality Index, and the Sales team. Attendees learned about the new Bloomberg Gender Equality Index, and heard a moderated discussion with Katrina Dudley, author of “Undiversified: The Big Gender Short in Investment Management.” No amount of inspiring rhetoric can replace the lessons learned from hands-on experience and face time with women in the field. This is also the ethos behind, Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) London’s programme HerCapital, a six-week-long mentoring and CV support program providing events, roundtables, workshops and an online knowledge base all designed to build a strong network of women who are motivated to take control of their incomes, and lift one another up.
On International Women’s Day 2022, Bloomberg joined forces with Goldman Sachs to support their 10,000 Women Growth Fellows initiative as part of our efforts to support diverse voices and promote an inclusive global economy. Spanning Bloomberg’s Beijing, New York, and London offices, and with a fourth event in Bengaluru, Bloomberg’s Corporate Philanthropy team hosted a relay of events with support from two dozen female leaders across our News, Sales and Media teams. Each event included a welcome from Bloomberg, office tours, storytelling workshops conducted by Bloomberg News and TV, and the opportunity for the fellows to take professional headshots.
“For too long, women and men have been spoken to differently about money,” said Naomi Kerbel, a volunteer with SEO’s HerCapital. “Men are told to spend more by investing, women are told to spend less, by saving. We’ve got to remove these negative gender stereotypes from the conversation around finance.”
Kerbel added, “Being involved in money—understanding it and controlling it —will enable women to take control of their finances and potentially even go for a career in finance.”
Bloomberg is also supporting the Girls2Pioneers mentoring program through United Women Singapore, with our employees helping young female students explore STEM fields as they go on to pursue post-secondary education. The kinds of direct connections, experience, and visibility promoted by these initiatives can inspire women at every stage of their careers to go farther in STEM and finance than they might have previously thought possible.
“It’s been inspiring to see young women from different walks of life choose fields of specialization like data engineering, cybersecurity and network systems,” said Deww Zhang, a mentor with Girlsl2Pioneers based in Singapore. “We can’t always control the external factors that deter young women from embarking on finance and finance-adjacent careers, but we can empower them to confront their self-doubts and uncertainties that might hold them back. They have the technical knowledge, they have the skills, and the hard yards are already halfway done. I’m just here to lend support and give guidance and encouragement to build the confidence they need to go the rest of the way.”
While women in corporate careers have made small in-roads when it comes to reaching managerial and C-suite positions, they remain underrepresented across the board, with women of color especially losing ground, according to McKinsey’s most recent Women in the Workplace report. For organizations in fields like finance and STEM that already suffer from a lack of gender parity, developing new approaches to lift women’s voices in the field is more crucial than ever.
With a continued focus on new programs and approaches to elevate women in finance (including the newly-launched EU Women in Finance initiative) Bloomberg is supporting the advancement of women – both students and professionals – in what have long been male-dominated fields. By leveraging the skills of employees and resources of the business, along with key industry and non-profit partnerships, Bloomberg is connecting the dots to show what kinds of careers in finance are possible, demystifying finance through hands-on training, and helping women at all stages of their professional lives gain the soft skills and broad networks that will help them further their careers.
In light of this year’s International Women’s Month theme of “breaking the bias,” we spoke with volunteers and advocates across Bloomberg’s Corporate Philanthropy programs and partnerships aimed at equalizing access in finance and tech, asking them all a single question to get right to the heart of the issue: What needs to happen in order to make the field of finance more inclusive of women and girls?