Career Responsibilities

A significant hurdle to women in asset management becoming Portfolio Managers is that the promotion decision is typically taken around the time many women have children, i.e. early 30s or after approximately 10 years as an Analyst. While most women take extended parental leave, men rarely do; in addition, women typically bear the majority of childcare responsibilities after birth. Moreover, there is an age range where, if a woman has not made PM, she likely never will and is viewed as a career analyst. Relative earnings dynamics within a family amplifies workplace dynamics. If a woman is overlooked for promotion in her early 30s while having children, her earnings may have fallen significantly behind her partner’s by her late 30s. The family dynamic may either dissuade her from returning to work or require her to bear more childcare responsibilities after returning, further increasing inequality. The career interruption from pregnancy applies outside of promotion concerns. A woman in the early stages of pregnancy or intending to become pregnant may be reluctant to take risk (e.g. by speaking up, making a contrarian investment, or switching firm) because, if she is made redundant, it will be difficult for her to find a new job as she will be at a late stage of pregnancy. One interviewee knows of women who have had abortions because they were too new in the job and being pregnant would expose them to too much career risk. This issue is highlighted in my report on Cognitive Diversity in Asset Management for Diversity Project - Investment Industry. https://lnkd.in/eASk7x3P Potential solutions are in my response to the FCA's consultation on Diversity and Inclusion in the Financial Sector at https://lnkd.in/eWgkd8qz (see p7). I would be grateful to learn of additional solutions: please leave a comment.

Am I really about to write this…….  It’s so disheartening to see that some age-old biases still rear their ugly heads in the professional sphere. Today, I had a conversation with a BRILLIANT senior candidate in the events industry, a single mother with an impressive skill set and an undeniable passion for her work. Yet, despite her qualifications and expertise, she found herself repeatedly overlooked for senior roles simply because she needed a modicum of flexibility to balance her career with her family responsibilities. Let's be clear: this isn't about a lack of talent or capability. This is about systemic biases that continue to disadvantage women, particularly mothers, in the workplace. It's a tale as old as time. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work and flexible schedules became the norm for many industries. Companies adapted overnight to accommodate these changes, recognizing that productivity and performance are not confined to traditional office hours or locations. Yet, even as we navigate this new landscape, it seems that old prejudices die hard. It's time for a reality check. Women, especially mothers, should not have to choose between advancing their careers and being present for their families. The persistent gender gap in leadership positions is not due to a lack of qualified candidates but rather a failure of organizations to dismantle outdated norms and biases. When we overlook talented individuals simply because they prioritise caregiving responsibilities, we perpetuate a cycle of inequality that harms not only those directly affected but also stifles innovation and progress within our organizations. It's up to all of us – leaders, colleagues, and allies to challenge gender stereotypes and advocate for equity in the workplace. In the end, diversity and inclusion are not just buzzwords – they are fundamental principles that drive innovation, foster creativity, and propel companies forward. It's time to shatter the glass ceiling once and for all and create a world where talent, not gender, determines success! Rant over... but it truly struck a nerve. It's infuriating to witness, especially when exceptional candidates lose out. But mark my words, the company wise enough to hire her for her next role will undoubtedly emerge as the ultimate victors in the end! #GenderEquality #WorkplaceEquity #InclusionMatters #EmpowerWomen Anna Whitehouse

“Behind every great man, there’s a great woman.” Give me a break. That line has been sold to us as a compliment. But it’s not. It keeps women in the shadows as the supporter, the caregiver, the one who makes sacrifices so a man can shine. The reality? - Women make up almost 40% of the global workforce. - Women-founded startups generate 2x more revenue per dollar invested. - Companies with women in senior leadership are 21% more likely to outperform competitors. Yet women still: ❌ Receive only 2% of venture capital funding. ❌ Make up less than 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs. ❌ Are paid 16% less on average than men for the same roles. This isn’t about “being behind” anyone. It’s about being systemically overlooked, underfunded, and underestimated. And the cost isn’t just to women. It’s to society, innovation, and the economy. McKinsey estimates that closing the gender gap could add $12 trillion to global GDP by 2025. So no, women don’t need to be framed as the ones behind. They’ve been building, leading, and changing the game all along. Maybe it’s time we stop with the clichés. And start giving women the credit they’ve earned, not as supporting characters, but as the story itself.

I was the only woman in the room so through some unspoken rule — I was supposed to plan the farewell party? A University of California survey of 3,000 employees found that women were 29% more likely than white men to report doing more office “housework” than their colleagues. Planning team lunches, and parties, taking notes, cleaning up the table after a meeting, scheduling calls — and other such “thankless” tasks often fall into women’s laps. Each of these is significantly hurting gender equality. Harvard Business Review labels these tasks as 'low-promotability tasks' — that are helpful to the organization but the person performing them isn’t perceived as making an impact. The way work is allocated in organizations needs to change. Not only do we need to re-address the perceived value attached to these tasks, but we also need to ensure that women aren’t the only ones doing office housework. Whenever it happened to me, I didn't have the courage to push back. I still wish I had. It's an unappreciated burden that a lot of women carry but we’re afraid of pushing back because we want to be seen as team players. It's time leaders make sure all work is shared equally, including “Dave’s” goodbye lunch. The trend of non-strategic work being piled up on women's desks needs to stop. We don't need logistical tasks, give us career-making roles and responsibilities. We'll no longer accept being sidelined. #bias #genderequality #womenintech #womenleaders #career #leadership

A £120k HR Director I worked with last year took a 14-month career break to care for her mother. When she returned to the job market, she applied for 23 roles at or below her previous level. She received 4 interviews. She was told in two of them that her 'gap' was a concern. 14 months. Not 5 years. Not a decade. 14 months, caring for a parent, and it was enough for panels to question her 'commitment' and 'currency.' I have worked with returners throughout my career. The pattern is consistent: the career break itself is rarely the issue. The issue is how panels interpret it when they see it on a CV. ❌ Listing a career break as a gap on your CV with no context. ✅ Frame the break as a deliberate decision. '2024-2025: Career break, full-time carer for a family member. During this period, I maintained my CIPD membership, completed a Level 7 module in Employment Law, and consulted informally with two former colleagues on restructuring projects.' The break should read as a chapter, not a gap. ❌ Apologising for the break in interviews. 'I know I've been out of the market...' ✅ Own it without apology. 'I made a decision to prioritise family care for 14 months. During that time, I stayed connected to the profession through [specific activities]. I am returning because I am ready to lead at this level again, and this role aligns with where I want to take my career.' ❌ Accepting a significant salary downgrade as 'the cost of coming back.' ✅ Benchmark your market value using current data, not guilt. 14 months out of a 20-year career does not reduce your worth by 25%. If a company offers £90k for a role worth £120k because you have a gap, that is not a reasonable adjustment. It is an exploitation of your perceived vulnerability. I call this The Return Penalty: the informal devaluation that happens when a career break is treated as evidence of reduced capability rather than evidence of a life lived outside work. Here is the follow-up question most companies cannot answer: if your organisation genuinely supports returners, how many of your hires in the last 12 months had career gaps of more than 12 months? If the answer is zero, the policy is not the problem. The process is. Have you experienced the return penalty? Or have you been on a panel where a career break changed the way you assessed a candidate?

In today's digital era, it's disheartening to witness stereotypes perpetuated against women, belittling their accomplishments to mere superficial traits. Phrases like "It's easy for her, she's a girl," or "A selfie is all it takes for her to succeed," painfully underscore the ignorance that still prevails, undermining the relentless efforts and tenacity of countless women. Particularly in a realm where social validation through social media has become a norm, such misguided judgments add an extra layer of bias that women have to fight against daily. If success was as effortless as being 'pretty' for women, the narrative of gender pay disparity or underrepresentation in leadership roles wouldn't exist. The reality is starkly different. Many incredibly talented women I know continue to earn less than their male counterparts, not because of a lack of competence, but because of an embedded gender bias. I've devoted a decade to my career, propelled by an unyielding passion for my work. Yet, the reductionist view of attributing any success I or other women achieve to mere appearance is not only unfair but grossly inaccurate. The road to recognition and fair treatment is an uphill battle, demanding a daily confrontation with biases and stereotypes. Every individual, irrespective of gender, faces challenges in their pursuit of success. If being 'pretty' was a shortcut to an easier life, we'd be living in a matriarchal society, which is far from our current reality. It's crucial to shed these preconceived notions and foster a more inclusive and respectful environment for all. Here are three tips on fostering respect and inclusivity: 1️⃣ Educate Yourself and Others: Understand the systemic biases and educate others around you. Awareness is the first step towards change. 2️⃣ Listen and Empathize: Before making assumptions, listen to the experiences of women and empathize with their struggles. 3️⃣ Advocate for Fair Treatment: Stand up against injustices, support policies that promote equality, and encourage others to do the same. P.S.- I am pretty but I am a good professional. Just don't drop your ignorance in the name of giving your validation just because Internet is free.

Are we punishing women for prioritising their families? Data from Career Returners shows that 94% of returners find it difficult to re-enter work, with CV gaps still triggering bias in hiring. If you’ve ever stepped away from work to care for a child, a parent, or simply to protect your own health, you’ll know that coming back isn’t always easy. Confidence fades. Skills feel stale. And even seasoned professionals are often made to feel like they’re starting from scratch. But let’s be clear: A career break is not a career ender. And no one should be penalised for putting family, caregiving or wellbeing first. This impacts everyone, but disproportionately women. Mothers. Daughters. Carers. Founders. Women who haven’t stopped working, just shifted the nature of their work. As someone who built businesses with toddlers at my feet, I know this story well. If we’re serious about inclusion - especially in midlife, we NEED to redesign our systems to welcome returners with confidence, not suspicion. That means: → Removing bias from job ads, interviews and ATS filters  → Offering mentoring, reboarding and coaching for returners  → Promoting their success, not hiding their stories Talent doesn’t disappear because someone stepped out of the workplace. It’s time we stopped acting like it does.

Hello LinkedIn ! Imagine sitting in a job interview for a multinational company and being asked: "Are you planning to get married?" "Do you intend to have children? Now, ask yourself: Would a man be asked the same questions? Despite all the progress we claim to have made in workplace equality, these intrusive and discriminatory questions still exist. They send a clear message: a woman’s career potential is evaluated not by her skills, experience, or ambition but by her personal life choices. The Cost of Ambition: What Are Women Expected to Sacrifice? For women in male-dominated fields, like oil and gas, the reality is even harsher. What kind of job requires a freshly married woman to be sent to the field for seven or more weeks without flexibility? Is this about business necessity, or is it a failure to accommodate diverse career paths? I've been witnessing some sad stories of incompetent managers forcing a freshly married woman to stay in the field more than here rotation schedule basically "6 weeks" in the cost of her own mariage !!!!! The real issue is NOT women’s ability to handle demanding roles. Women have proven, time and again, their competence in high-pressure environments. The real problem is the systemic unwillingness to adapt workplace policies to support employees regardless of gender who want both a successful career and a fulfilling personal life. Men are rarely asked about their marital status or parental plans. Why? Because corporate structures were built with their careers in mind. But when a woman steps into the same space, she is expected to prove that she won’t “disrupt” the system with her life choices. Companies love to highlight their Diversity & Inclusion initiatives. But true inclusivity is not about hiring women just to meet quotas it’s about ensuring that they don’t have to justify their personal lives to keep their careers. If we want real progress, we must shift the conversation: - Stop penalizing women for wanting both a career and a family. - Stop questioning their commitment to work based on their personal choices. - Start designing policies that support all employees, men and women, in balancing career ambitions with personal fulfillment. This is not just a women’s issue it’s a workplace fairness issue. And it’s time for companies to catch up. Let’s break the cycle. Let’s demand change. #Diversity #Inclusion #WomenInLeadership #BreakingBarriers #WorkplaceEquality #WomenInSTEM #WomenInEnergy #WomenInTech #GenderEquality #EmpowerWomen #CareerGrowth #WomenInBusiness #WomenInOilAndGas #WorkLifeBalance #EqualOpportunities #Leadership #RepresentationMatters

I was terrified to go back to work after having my daughter. Not because I didn’t want to - I love my career and the independence it gives me - but because I couldn’t see how to do it without sacrificing the time I wanted with her. And when I looked around, I saw exactly what I’d feared: - Brilliant women stepping out of the workforce because flexible roles were like gold dust. - Friends taking minimum-wage jobs just to work part-time. - Talented candidates ghosted by recruiters the moment they said “I want flexibility.” And the impact of stepping away - even for a short time - is brutal: 🚫 Salary cuts of 40%+ 🚫 Roles you’re overqualified for but overlooked for 🚫 Confidence that vanishes almost overnight I lived it. I saw it. I hated it. That’s why I built Investing in Women - to prove that part-time can still be powerful, that flexible doesn’t mean less committed, and that no one should have to choose between a career they love and a family they adore. And four years on, I wanted to know: has anything really changed? So we asked. Hundreds of women shared their stories in our Return Ready Survey and the results are honest, eye-opening and, in places, heartbreaking. 📉 3 in 4 women rated their confidence as medium or low when returning. 📉 58% said work-life boundaries are their biggest challenge. 📉 45% told us low self-worth is holding them back. Behind every statistic is a real woman with talent, ambition and potential that too often goes untapped. It’s time we stopped accepting this as normal. 📊 You can read the full findings here: https://lnkd.in/eAvNE4Q3 Because returning to work isn’t starting over. It’s starting stronger. ❤️ #FlexibleWorking #GenderEquality #ReturnToWork #InvestingInWomen #MotherhoodPenalty

As a full-time working mum to a five-year-old, I'm always fascinated to read and learn more about the impact of motherhood on women's careers. It's well documented that mothers encounter a penalty impacting wages or advancement opportunities, but I was intrigued (and dismayed) to learn of recent research that highlights that the ‘motherhood’ bias affects all women’s careers, regardless of whether they plan to have children or not.    “Women don’t have to be mothers or even want children to be affected by a “maternal wall.” Simply being a woman means being viewed as a potential mother — or someone who should be a mother — which is enough to create such a wall at work.”    As this article highlights, a survey of 913 women leaders highlighted various forms of bias. This included women not being hired or promoted due to assumptions they would become mothers (‘maybe baby’), to being expected to ‘do more’ if they didn’t have children, to being ‘paid less’ as they weren’t working to ‘support a family.’    Authors, Amy Diehl and Leanne M Duzubinski, recommend several solutions to combat bias including: ➡ Offering flexibility without judgment, ➡ A ‘flip it to test it’ exercise to ensure inappropriate assumptions are not being made,  ➡ Equitable allocation of workload, ➡ Ensuring equal pay, and, ➡ Encouraging men to demonstrate caregiving     Additional considerations include implementing clear and fair performance metrics, addressing stereotypes through education and capacity building, and promoting a balanced work culture where all individuals are encouraged to take time off and schedule leave.  #genderequity #motherhood #bias