The “Problem” as I see it.

Anyone who knows me will know that I prefer the direct route. I prefer to get to the root of the problem and fix it rather than to work around the periphery treating the symptoms.   This is why I started “Heels on The Floor”.

There are so many different initiatives working to fix different problems with gender imbalance,  I am concerned that we may be solely focusing on the symptoms. Equal pay, women on boards, and gender bias are symptoms of a fundamental problem.   The problem is that there are too many men and too few women “in the room” when key decisions are made.

Having been the only woman in the room more often than not over the last fifteen years of my corporate life, I believe this is THE core problem and is the first thing we must fix.   One woman in a room with eleven men cannot raise, explain, debate, and solve all the issues that need to be addressed when it comes to gender equality. But in that same room of twelve seats, where you find that women are in six of those seats, you won’t see the same problem.

Let’s think about that on a grander scale for an even better illustration…..

For one moment imagine how much could change for women in the United States (and around the world) if fifty of the one hundred seats (50/100) in the U.S. Senate and two hundred and eighteen of the four hundred and thirty-five (218/435) in the U. S. House of Representatives were held by women.     I intentionally use the exact numbers rather than just saying “half” because “half” sounds vague and almost unattainable, but two hundred and sixty-eight (268/535) is a real number that we can start tracking TODAY.

———pause to contemplate this———————-

Okay, so whether we are talking about your firm, bank, trading house (or the United States Congress) I think we can agree that there would be no time wasted explaining or debating the existence or relevance of issues like the gender wage gap, paid parental leave, pregnancy accommodation and the underrepresentation of women in commercial, technical and other key roles because half of the room is already fully aware of them, has likely experienced them, and has enough collective influence to prioritize and address them.

I don’t believe that a room full of men, even with the best intentions can fully grasp the impact of these issues in the same way that women can. The first step to solving any problem is to understand it and identify it as a problem. No amount of analysis, detailed explanation, or fancy PowerPoint slides can take the place of true understanding and experience. There should be no question that we need more women in the rooms where decisions are made.

As we all know, we are a long way away from having equal representation in decision-making roles within financial services (or almost any) industry.   For this reason, I believe that every woman has a vested interest in the success of every other woman in her organization and industry. This starts with every young woman walking in the door as a summer intern and goes up, over and through every woman in every role throughout your firm.

So…Start Counting!!!!   Every time you walk into a meeting, huddle on the trading floor, attend an offsite or assemble for a Town Hall with “your” Management Committee take a moment and count. Make sure you know the numbers. Until the woman to man ratio is balanced our work is not done. We will need to keep encouraging, promoting, supporting and applauding the women around us until we can stop counting.

We are all in this together.

#HeelPower