Dealing with sexism in finance

[DominiConnor]

We've had a thread about the existence of sexism but to me it's not the issue we should discuss.

I'm more interested in strategies in dealing with it because society is beyond my control but advising people is something I can do, but I do not feel the counseling I give on this topic is as good I would want it to be.

Being male, most of my experience is 2nd hand or more distant so I'd really be interested in input from the (sadly few) females amongst us.

There exist laws, but they are a clumsy tool and difficult to use without risking serious career damage and many issues are individually too small to make the risk worthwhile.

Unsurprisingly a lot revolves around pay, so the first question is on how you can identify pay disparity and how you make the case for being paid the same ?

 

[sjain]

One point I would like to make is sexism occurs only in certain professions. Fields such as science, engineering and more quantitative fields, I believe are based entirely on meritocracy and there is no discrimination at all. However, in jobs such as floor trading, sales, military which are driven by individual personalities and communication skills and are traditionally male dominated, there is bound to be some discrimination, and its hard to implement laws against it.

 

[MiloRambaldi]

...Fields such as science, engineering and more quantitative fields, I believe are based entirely on meritocracy and there is no discrimination at all. ...

Your belief is a delusion.

 

[sjain]

Your belief is a delusion.

Can you be more specific? Give an example that illustrates sexism in engineering since you are a male and the post was liked by males.. In what was have you observed (since you have not experienced) sexism in your field ?

 

[amanda.jayne]

Give an example that illustrates sexism in engineering

Having spent the first half of my career working as an engineer in manufacturing plants, I can give you plenty.

DominiConnor Do the same job. Do it better. Become indispensable.

 

[DominiConnor]

I agree with Amanda that engineering can be at least as sexist as banking, and would refine her advice as taking the time to work out what "better" means in the precise context of this job. It's easy to wrongly order priorities and quality vs time and which things your management care about. Just in case you thought that was easy, they aren't constant either.

Let's focus on an issue that affects many of us where you have come to know that an equivalent or less good colleague earns more.
What do you do about it ?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

There is an article on Risk Management magazine titled Women on Risk: Overcoming Gender Bias