Women in male-dominated businesses frequently face similar difficulties, including a lack of pay equity, the glass barrier, a dearth of positive role models, and sometimes open misogyny. In this article, you can learn some of the peculiar benefits of being a woman in the banking industry and how you may use them to address other gender-based issues.
Despite substantial advancements, men still predominate in finance, especially at the top. In actuality, women make up almost half of all employees in commercial banking businesses but just 30.8% of managerial roles.
Increased innovation and creativity, easier hiring (particularly of younger and/or more diversity-minded staff), and the possibility of a higher market share are just a few of the advantages of diversity and inclusion at work.
Women still experience issues in fields where men predominate, like banking. Unfair remuneration, a lack of chances, and a dearth of female role models are some of these problems. There are even more sinister problems. Do you, for instance, be interrupted more frequently than men do during meetings? Is your method for balancing work and family discussed, or even publicly questioned? What's the state of your marriage? Do you end up cleaning the dishes for the office?
Other, more serious problems include assault and harassment; over a quarter of women say they have experienced some form of it; many more decide not to report it for fear of retaliation or a detrimental effect on their career.
We should remain optimistic that most people do not intend to cause, contribute to, or experience gender-based disputes or discomfort despite the frequency of these problems. In that vein, we'd rather highlight the benefits of being a woman in banking rather than the drawbacks.
1. Your Mind Works Differently
According to Penn Medicine research, imaging of the brains of men and women reveals considerable variances. The most fascinating aspect? These variations work well together.
Women, for instance, have a propensity for having more connections "between the left and right hemispheres, suggesting that they improve communication between the analytical and intuition."
According to the study, women often have superior memory and social cognition skills than men do, whereas males tend to be better at learning and doing a single activity at a time. In this situation, women are probably better at multitasking and coming up with group-friendly solutions. According to the study, men may be better at prioritizing execution while women may be faster at processing complicated information.
2. Greater Expression of Emotions
Studies throughout the years have revealed that women typically express their emotions more openly. Even though they often display their feelings more visibly by smiling or other facial gestures, women tend to convey their emotions more openly than men do.
Other research has demonstrated that women typically communicate more actively than men. Women may use up to 8,000 words a day and 10,000 gestures, according to one study. Men utilize 4,000 words and 3,000 gestures, which is less than half as many.
Increased expressiveness has a wide range of benefits. Active and effective communication can boost team spirit, better identify issues, and ensure alignment.
In fact, according to a Pew Research survey, 31% of participants thought that women were more trustworthy and moral in business, and 25% said that they were better at fostering employee loyalty.
3. Your Techniques Might Be Less Dangerous
Men tend to take greater risks than women, according to numerous studies. It may be advantageous to include women in talks and decision-making in any tense scenario because this disparity tends to be accentuated under stressful circumstances.
However, there has also been an exaggeration of the notion that women are risk-averse. Contrary to popular belief, women are not at all risk-averse, especially in a professional setting. Both men and women take deliberate, well-considered risks, which is a strength both genders share. For instance, the notion that women tend to be less risky but possibly more successful investors has received a lot of attention.
Due to their attitude toward risk and some of the other variables mentioned above, some people have referred to women as the "hidden weapon" of the financial industry.