{"id":63549,"date":"2022-06-24T02:35:37","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T06:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=63549"},"modified":"2022-06-24T22:45:20","modified_gmt":"2022-06-25T02:45:20","slug":"female-finance-leaders-outperform-their-male-peers-so-why-so-few-of-them-in-academia-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/female-finance-leaders-outperform-their-male-peers-so-why-so-few-of-them-in-academia-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Female finance leaders outperform their male peers, so why so few of them in academia and beyond?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Group Of Business People Having Board Meeting Around Glass Table.<\/p><\/div>\n

The gender diversity of thought leadership in finance is lower than in most other academic fields,\u00a0our research<\/a>\u00a0shows. Finance ranks 132nd out of 175 fields with a representation of only 10.3% women among its thought leaders. Yet these women outperform their male peers.<\/p>\n

How did we measure this? The impact of an academic\u2019s ideas can be quantified using academic citations \u2013 how often their work is referenced in research published by other academics. We consider thought leaders to be academics who have been\u00a0ranked<\/a>\u00a0among the\u00a0top 2%<\/a>\u00a0in their respective fields by citations in the\u00a0Scopus<\/a>\u00a0database.<\/p>\n

We found the percentage of female thought leaders in finance is lower than in economics and in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). It\u2019s surprising since finance is a younger field than economics and so might be expected to be less traditionally male-dominated. The field of academic finance was carved out of economics in the early 1940s.<\/p>\n

Our evidence on thought leadership is consistent with other evidence that women are less represented in finance academia than in economics. This is true at every level, from incoming PhD students through to full professors.<\/p>\n

We see the under-representation of women in finance both among academics and\u00a0more broadly<\/a>. A\u00a02020 Deloitte report<\/a>\u00a0noted:
\n\u201cAll but six of 111 CEOs at the 107 largest US public financial institutions (including four with co-CEOs) are men.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Why are so few women in finance?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The fact that finance is less gender-diverse than other maths-intensive fields suggests standard arguments about women\u2019s preferences with respect to STEM subjects cannot explain their low representation in finance.<\/p>\n

Country-level culture is also unlikely to explain women\u2019s representation in finance. As our research shows, finance thought leadership is geographically concentrated. Only 20% of finance thought leaders are located outside the USA or UK.<\/p>\n

Instead, we argue the culture of academic finance is less welcoming to women than it is to men. We provide two pieces of evidence for this argument.<\/p>\n

First, we show that individual female thought leaders in finance have more impact than their male peers, as measured by citations per paper, their academic rank and a composite score of six citation metrics (total citations,\u00a0H-index<\/a>,\u00a0Hm-index<\/a>, citations of single, first and last-authored papers). This finding is especially striking given\u00a0evidence<\/a>\u00a0that women\u2019s research is less likely to be cited. Female thought leaders in finance also have relatively more impact than they do in economics or other STEM fields.<\/p>\n

These results suggest the obstacles women face in finance are greater than in other fields. The individuals who overcome these barriers outperform their peers.<\/p>\n

Second, we show that women\u2019s beliefs about the\u00a0level of innate talent<\/a>\u00a0needed to succeed in finance, instead of motivation and effort, are not correlated with women\u2019s representation in finance thought leadership, but men\u2019s beliefs are. These results are consistent with the idea that men\u2019s beliefs represent a greater barrier to equality in thought leadership, role modelling and education in the \u201cmasculine\u201d field of finance than in other fields.<\/p>\n

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‘Academics know that the public perception of roles in #economics<\/a> and #finance<\/a> plays an instrumental role in shaping the direction of women’s & girl’s education & careers right from the start.’ @hannahbargawi<\/a>, Senior Lecturer @SOAS<\/a>.
\nRead more: https:\/\/t.co\/EHhjz45LTK<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/WPyYRBQRM2<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 OMFIF (@OMFIF) April 2, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n