Women in finance, is life tougher under DEI attack?

Hi there,

I’m a journalist at a British financial publication. Do you think recent politics in the US are reversing the progress of gender equality & work culture?

Please shoot me a DM if you have anything to say. Anonymity will be granted!

46 Comments
 

Definitely agree. But wouldn’t that signal a structural issue with the hiring process on a level beyond diversity if less qualified candidates are getting offers over more qualified candidates regardless of race/gender?

 
Controversial

Lol, it goes a bit deeper than that: it’s cultural rot brought upon by ideological zealots, that has managed to rope in enough useful idiots who are desperate to signal that they’re “one of the good ones.” Let me point out a couple of the insidious pieces of the OP (which I do believe was not out of malice, but stupidity):

- Forgone conclusion: this so-called “journalist” had already determined that “bro culture” is back, and people are now emboldened in the US to be “racist and sexist.” The exact rhetoric that lost the democrats the election. They are seeking affirmation of these conclusions, and I’m sure they’ll get exactly that by online political shit stirrers and bots. There is no interest in the truth.

- Look closely how they’re implying that these people oppose equality, implying equal opportunity, vs. the real “E” in DEI, “equity,” which attempts to deliver equal outcomes. You will find only the fringiest of the fringe oppose the former, while anyone who can think even somewhat critically opposes the latter.


Luckily, the tide has indeed turned. Just not in the way the OP wishes for their clickbait, but in a way that they are too detached from reality to grasp.

 

Lol, get a life. No one cares about your little woke journalism article. Trump’s America will send all of you seething to the floor where you belong.


There are plenty of women and people of colour who are qualified and do not need racism/sexism helping them.

 

DEI was nonsense and was doomed to fail.  It was already starting to fall apart before Trump won, which is why he was able to make a useful campaign issue of it.  You'll notice Democrats didn't defend DEI in responding to him; they downplayed it.  So that indicates it was already a losing cause. 

 
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Happy to comment for your article.

I am a non-penis identifying xerson and I also unfortunately have a gender neutral name (think Sam, Logan, Jordan). To make it clear I am a woman and deserve a place in finance, my plan was to break into the industry by participating in Girls who Invest. Now that there is no gender equality, how am a supposed to survive by putting my application in with everyone else? It is bigoted to lump me in with the hoards of people trying to enter the industry on their own merit.

It has taken such an emotional toll on me- my mom came into my dorm room to bring me a plate of chicken nuggets and I literally screamed at her and hit the plate of chicken nuggets out of her hand. She started yelling and swearing at me and I slammed the door on her. I'm so distressed right now I don't know what to do. I didn't mean to do that to my mom but I'm literally in shock from this misogyny. I feel like I'm going to explode.

 

You make these bad jokes like being a woman in a male-dominated workplace is not an uphill climb, let alone banking where some banks / groups don't have a single woman on leadership in the room. Your comment inadvertently shows why we need these programs, because when anybody tries to discuss any perceived issues they get portrayed as self-victimizing or lazy 

 

Make your own company, you guys are always hating on white successful people but don’t create your own shit. Where is the new successful all woman fund, since there isnt you want forced integration in cushy jobs, cause you dont want equality in oil fields and coal mines right? Only in banking, private equity, goverment, positions of power. I am not saying you shouldnt want to participate and aim for these jobs, but its weird that you want to participate only in establishments made by people you think there are too much of in the establishments that were made by them. And this is my view as a foreigner I am not even american.

 

None of what you said are real issues. They get perceived as self-victimizing or lazy because that's what they are. Try again Becky

 
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If this is the Financial Times, I would like to say something with a different sentiment but somewhat unrelated to this post — love what you guys are doing, by far the best investigative, financial journalism. It's crazy how much better deep-dive FT pieces are than WSJ

 

There’s a lot of interesting comments on here…


However, it does feel that DEI has further divided people on the street. From an IB perspective:

  1. Women make up a significantly smaller pool of candidates due to lack of interest, but despite that, get a disproportionate amount of exclusive spots in order to meet quotas/target distributions. This spurs animosity from other deserving and undeserving candidates (even to genuinely good DEI candidates)
  2. This makes DEI recruiting less competitive, which lead to worse performers. This is banking, so many places are sink or swim, meaning good performers tend to get staffed more and have to pick up extra legwork because under-performers aren’t trusted. I know anecdotally about nightmare DEI situations, where the whole DEI group was closer to a tumor, and all the other analysts had to sacrifice their health in order to pick up their work

    With that in mind though, I do think there’s a lot of unfair confirmation bias in the industry. There are tons of great women and DEI members within finance. Which is why I truly believe, if you want banking to be truly diverse, it needs to happen naturally and overtime. Let talent recognize talent, banks won’t skimp on revenue generators.

 

The “cancer” of DEI will not disappear until the compensation of executives / group heads / MDs is delinked from DEI targets. Just to be very clear, the prime beneficiaries of DEI are white females and this feminist mafia won’t relent that easily as they are backed by rich/powerful white males. Look at Apple, their BoD is backing DEI as their CEO is g*y. Do you think he will let it go this easily. Same way, Sam Altman, another g*y, do you think he won’t use his reach and influence to propagate DEI. 

 

Here is the situation with DEI right now. Feminist mafia ensures that 90% seats go to white females. However, when it comes to marketing they will parade women of color, black/hispanic males, and LGBTQ. So, in its current shape upside of DEI is mostly for white females while the hate from masses is directed towards colored candidates. When you get this, you will want DEI abolished too. 

 

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