Telling Women's Lives

Jorge Fournier | Reader Response 3/20

I get excited every time I get to meet a woman in banking. I am going into investment banking this summer and I am currently networking with different groups to see which companies I will be covering during my internship. In these calls, we talk about the culture, opportunities for personal growth, and daily job activities. Banking is a man dominated environment. But banks are trying to change this by hosting women leadership conferences focused on recruiting attendees. In the reading, we see that gender stereotypes “affect how we perceive both men and women’s abilities.” I find startling that women are judged this way in banking. I believe that because it is a male-dominated environment, men are significantly picky with the women they invite to their teams. These gender stereotypes are rooted in our brains and even as we try to eliminate them, we sometimes fail to acknowledge them. As I begin to meet people, especially women, I get excited to be working in a bank that is actively trying to improve their gender and diversity statistics in a world filled with people who do not think the same way. Following the details in the reading, I have still not seen these women face to face, but I imagine that the association between women and beauty exists in banking. This gender role that has been created and discussed in the reading will probably be present, because, even as the bank moves to hire more women, the people in charge of choosing the women to fill the open roles might choose the prettier women. With this in mind, I hope we can continue to improve the statistics of women in the workplace and gender stereotypes.

In addition to the reading on gender roles, I was also surprised to read in the NYT article that women in science also face some discrimination. My sister is considering research as a potential career, so I am glad that I can give her a heads-up about it before she starts her full-time career.