Bloomberg Women’s Buy-Side Network: Expert insights from the launch of the California chapter
Bloomberg recently launched a new California chapter of the Bloomberg Women’s Buy-Side Network (BWBN), a group focused on elevating women in the asset management industry.
The California chapter is part of Bloomberg’s growing Women’s Buy-Side Network community, which now includes chapters in Brazil, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. The mission of the network is to be inspired by the future of investing and to inspire the next generation of women buy-side leaders.
The California chapter — the first BWBN chapter in the U.S. — recently hosted its first event at the impressive new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. The evening’s special guest was Ellen Carr, Principal and Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at Barksdale Investment Management, Adjunct Professor of Finance at Columbia University’s Business School and co-author of Undiversified: The Big Gender Short in Investment Management.
Getting women into finance
As discussed at the event, working toward gender parity in asset management is an important goal, given that just 14% of portfolio managers around the world are women. (In the U.S., it’s only 11%.)
According to Carr, that number has been stagnating for a decade or more, and the only industry with less gender balance is real estate (where only 4% of senior investment roles are held by women).
Addressing the problem starts with getting more women into the industry. But finance has an image problem: Carr’s book notes that finance ranks third among the least trustworthy industries in the U.S.; Jerilyn Castillo McAniff, one of Carr’s co-panelists at the event, remarked that even though finance is a “fantastic” industry for women to work in the positive aspects of working in the business are not always properly communicated, due in some part to how the industry is portrayed in films and by media. (Carr called on press members in attendance to cover the industry better.)
Another challenge to getting women in the door is the “narrative the industry tells its recruits,” according to Carr.
“I remember one of the senior guys, when I first started out, talked about how he looked for people with a deep-seated love of money when he interviewed,” said Carr at the event. “There is some sense in which what we do is vaguely, well, disgusting to all kinds of demographics because it can involve high compensation — and that can be off-putting.”
The answer? Instead, women finance professionals could talk about the good they do — helping people save for a house, for example, or put away money for their kids’ college or retirement. (Even better: Work with an organization like Rock The Street, Wall Street to go into a high school and tell girls about your job.)
Improving on the ‘three Ps’
The event also addressed the three Ps in investment management — promotion, pay, and performance evaluation — and what the industry needs to be doing better for women across those areas.
Taking a more data-driven approach can help show and address gendered differentials in each of these areas, according to Carr.
With pay, for example, the finance industry is notoriously opaque. Changing that can help close well-known gender gaps. (One recent survey of investment management professionals at the senior analyst or portfolio manager level showed that women’s bonuses were nearly 30% lower than men’s.)
“Data is the answer,” said Carr. “While we don’t advocate that you should know down to the penny what the guy sitting next to you is making, it’s the responsibility of management at IM firms that are attempting to move the diversity needle to know this and justify any gender gaps.”
When it comes to performance evaluations, it’s important for employers to evaluate employees among one another, rather than in a vacuum (which can lead to bias). And while it’s also important to train evaluators to be on the lookout for bias, Carr noted that the framing of the training makes all the difference to its potential effectiveness: ally training empowers people to help others, while bias training can potentially backfire by making people feel “scolded” and/or giving them “permission” to engage in biased behavior.
Helping women network
A key theme of the BWBN event was networking. According to Carr, women “chronically underinvest in networking.” Networking, she says, is a type of career risk that requires confidence — and that “builds political capital for investing’s inevitable rough patches.”
BWBN seeks to help make networking easier for women in asset management. And events like this one are far from all that BWBN California plans to offer; the chapter is committed to mentoring and sponsorship to help promote more women up to management-level buy-side positions, and its future programming will be determined based on what chapter members believe will have the greatest impact.
If you’re interested in joining the network, you can engage with BWBN on LinkedIn or sign up here to join the mailing list.
BWBN California chapter co- founders
Bonnie Wongtrakool
Global Head of ESG Investments, Portfolio Manager
Western Asset Management Company
Monica Erickson
Head of Investment Grade Credit, Portfolio Manager
DoubleLine LP
Kaitlyn Mock
BWBN California Chapter Advocate
Bloomberg L.P.
Jerilyn Castillo McAniff
Managing Director, Head of Diversity & Inclusion
Oaktree Capital Management
Pooja Malik
Founding Partner, CEO
Nipun Capital LP