Active Stocks
Thu Mar 28 2024 15:59:33
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 155.90 2.00%
  1. ICICI Bank share price
  2. 1,095.75 1.08%
  1. HDFC Bank share price
  2. 1,448.20 0.52%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 428.55 0.13%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 277.05 2.21%
Business News/ Companies / Equities largely a man’s world
BackBack

Equities largely a man’s world

Women cite all-boys atmosphere in institutional dealing rooms as a deterrent

HR firms say women make up 25-30% of the industry workforce, while experts say it’s more in the range of 10-20%. Photo: Abhijit Bhatlekar/MintPremium
HR firms say women make up 25-30% of the industry workforce, while experts say it’s more in the range of 10-20%. Photo: Abhijit Bhatlekar/Mint

Mumbai: “It is our policy not to hire women."

The director at one of the small-sized firms into institutional equities and investment banking is dead serious. “People at the trading desk use a lot of bad language. It does not look nice in front of ladies," he explains.

While the firm does have a few women on its staff roll, “we are not happy with women’s services", he says, asking to remain anonymous.

Mint asked at least 20 financial services companies in equity broking, merchant banking or investment banking businesses, or their public relations firms, about their male-female ratio. Only 2 got back.

There was also a discrepancy in the data provided by human resources (HR) consultancy firms and the estimates given by people in the industry based on their experience.

While HR firms say women make up 25-30% of the industry workforce, industry experts say it’s more in the range of 10-20%.

Things are slightly better in the investment banking space where women occupy senior positions, industry experts say.

But women constitute only 3% of the total members of the BSE Brokers’ Forum. In institutional dealing rooms as well, the absence of women is evident. Women do, however, seem to have greater representation in research and support functions.

IIFL Holdings Ltd, one of the financial services firms that responded to Mint, says as of March, there were 10% women in its investment banking business and 20% in its retail broking division. Around 40% of fresh graduates hired in the firm’s retail-broking business are women. The male-female ratio in attrition rates at IIFL stood at 7:3 in the retail broking division, and at 9:1 in the investment banking division.

The company has flexible working hours for women, maternity leave and also allows women to work from home or locations near home, says Pallab Mukherji, president of human resources at IIFL.

The break women take from work while raising children has never been an impediment in their career growth at the company, Mukherji says. “Post such breaks, women have returned and many are at leading roles in their respective functions," Mukherji said in an email.

Women make up 17.2% of the total workforce at Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd, according to Ruth Singh, the firm’s human resources head.

Emkay was the second firm that got back to Mint.

There is no difference in the compensation between male and female employees and salaries are based on experience, qualification and performance, she adds.

“The participation of women has improved over time, but the ratio is not very promising," concedes Arun Kejriwal, director of Kejriwal Research & Information Services that has been involved with the capital market for almost three decades. Women employees at Kejriwal account for just 10%—receptionists and housekeeping staff included—of the total the firm employs. “The ratio," warns Kejriwal, “could be lower in smaller firms."

The proportion of women in the workforce across sectors is not even close to being equal.

And the financial services sector is not immune to many of the usual reasons for attrition—women opting out of careers for marriage and raising children, for instance.

More difficult to explain is why this particular industry attracts even fewer women than most others.

In the Western world as well, there were always fewer women as compared to men in this industry. However, the ratio seems to be better than that in India. In a 5 September 2013 article, The Atlantic said that data collected by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for 2012 for Investment Banking and Securities Dealing put women as one-third of the sector’s total workers; fewer than one in six are managers and more than half are clerical workers.

Part of the reluctance to hire women stems from the fact that some of these firms are family-owned businesses that traditionally don’t hire women, say industry experts. Others face basic infrastructural problems such as the absence of even separate toilets for women. And at still others, women themselves are not comfortable joining, they claim.

“There would be 15-20% women (of the total workforce) in equity broking," said Alok Churiwala, vice-chairman of BSE Brokers’ Forum. “But many women don’t find dealing with numbers attractive."

Two other people, a man and a woman, agreed with Churiwala that women usually preferred relatively creative fields to number crunching.

To be sure, this is a controversial and old-fashioned claim, which many consider to be sexist. The reality is far more complex than the idea that men are more “technical" and women more “creative".

One woman who has worked with equities for more than a decade says institutional dealing rooms have an all-boys atmosphere filled with abusive language. “Trading and dealing involves a lot of aggression. We hear foul language and abusive words very often. If it is from a client while executing a trade, there is not much option but to take it. It is just so built in the culture," says the woman who did not wish to be identified.

The representation of women in research and support functions tends to be somewhat better, she adds.

The paucity of women in the sector does not seem to be a problem limited to India. “My interactions tell me it happens all over the globe," says this woman. Moreover, the career moves aren’t as easy for women in this industry compared to others.

Another woman, who was working as a dealer and relationship manager for over 10 years at the retail branch-level, recently quit her job. She says she got used to the abusive language as “part of the work culture". She even received the support of her boss when a client tried to tell her an offensive joke and the boss ticked off the client. When she had a baby, her maternity leave went through smoothly. Yet despite all this, she said the work pressure was just too much. She quit and now assists her husband in his business.

Not everyone is so lucky. Another woman, who worked as a dealer at a retail branch, says that the usual individual sales targets at her branch were four times the salary drawn. When she applied for a maternity leave, she was told that she needed to meet the target for the three months of her maternity leave. She says she was not left with any choice but to quit.

While the number of women in equity research is low, research analysts say career advancement opportunities do not depend on gender.

Investment banking is one area, however, where women’s participation, though low, seems somewhat better than that in equity broking—at least in terms of the quality of jobs. Women also hold senior and key positions at some of the investment banking firms.

“Investment banking indeed is a hectic job. You have late nights and frequent travel, but then that is what the job calls for," says a woman investment banker. “You have to be physically, mentally and emotionally strong. If you have that sorted, you will do fine," she says.

But sorted or not, there is one area where she says she simply cannot compete with her male colleagues: “meeting the client casually over drinks late in the evening and being there till 1 or 2am".

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Catch all the Corporate news and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
More Less
Published: 17 Nov 2014, 12:16 AM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App

Chat with MintGenie