• More about the insights into women’s wealth that Robyn Ross developed over 20 years in the finance workforce.
• How the talent acquisition system in the financial services industry is currently backward compared to other industries.
• What women are doing to stand up for themselves and correct the system.
• Why diversity is the financially wise choice for financial services companies to make.
• How to allow people to make honest mistakes that make your company better.
• What we can do to be more vulnerable about our own biases regarding women’s wealth.

The finance sector is notoriously lacking when it comes to diversity. Only 8% of workers in this field are women, and an even tinier 0.4% of firms are owned by women. With these statistics in mind, it should be evident that women may feel like a fish out of water upon entering the workforce in this industry.

Worse yet, some may never enter the industry because they fear they will be unable to have a rewarding career. While they may have the skill and talent needed to thrive in the field, issues with hiring and biased leadership could easily set a woman behind their male counterparts.

In this week’s episode of What’s The Difference podcast, Sara Taylor invites guest Robyn Ross to discuss her actions to counteract bias in the finance sector.

Many leaders in the financial space refuse to embrace diversity because they fear changes to their own position in their respective companies. They use phrases like “meritocracy” to describe why they deserve to succeed in finance while others do not. Yet, quite often, they disregard the reality that many of the people in positions of power in this industry come from incredibly privileged backgrounds. Understanding this, it is up to business leaders to create culturally competent hiring standards that help people who do not come from a place of inherent privilege.

Old systems are starting to fade as more women stand up for themselves and male allies support them. In time, the structural bias that has become commonplace will only be a chapter in the past. Yet, some companies are rushing to show off results that they haven’t really achieved yet. They promote themselves as having embraced diversity, solely to make notes in their sustainability reports. Rather than considering the human element of diversity and inclusion, their actions are superficial and purely transactional.

You may not be around to see the impacts of the work that you’ve done. Still, that does not mean you shouldn’t do it. Making the financial sector more diverse and inclusive is a collaborative effort that will take every one of you to work together to achieve a specific goal.

Sara Taylor earned a master’s degree in Diversity and Organizational Development from the University of Minnesota. She served as a leadership and diversity specialist at the University of Minnesota for five years and as director of diversity and inclusion for Ramsey County, Minnesota, for three years.

Sara is the founder and president of deepSEE Consulting and has worked with companies as large as Coca-Cola, General Mills, 3M Company, AARP, and numerous others. She has a new book, “Filter Shift: How Effective People See the World,” which explores how our unconscious is actually making choices and decisions for us, all without our knowing — and how to change that.

• Website: www.deepseeconsulting.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/deepSEESara @deepSEESara