It’s no secret that there are more men involved in the financial sector than women. Women comprise 10% of top US Corporation CEOs. The low level of female participation in the financial sector can be caused by various factors, including cultural norms and stereotypes, having different interests when it comes to choosing a career, and preferences when it comes to work life balance.
- Occupational choices: Men and women tend to select different occupations in life. Men tend to pick more high-paying jobs, such as construction, architecture, engineering, finance, technology, and agriculture. Women are more likely to choose fields that are more social, such as the educational sector, healthcare, and social services. Men tend to be interested in things and women tend to be interested in people. This is a generalization and there are many exceptions.
- Work-life balance: women may place a higher value on work-life balance than men. Women take care of children, which is often the reason why they tend to take more part-time jobs or work fewer hours. Which can limit their opportunities for career advancements.
- Cultural differences: in most countries men are conditioned to become a provider for their family, which leads to taking jobs that can pay a better salary. Financial jobs are known to be high-paying and at the same time, highly competitive. To become successful in this sector, it requires a lot of mental and physical work.
- Financial activity is associated with a lot of risk taking and men are riskier than women. More men go to casinos, more males are in prison than females, men work riskier jobs, such as construction, military service, etc. However, it should be mentioned that in financial trading, this male trait is actually less beneficial.
Financial trading and genders
While it is true that there are more male traders than females, women are outperforming men in terms of average results. As already mentioned, females are more risk-averse than males. Which often results in better risk management. And risk management is one of the main factors for success in trading. To trade successfully, there are various factors to take into account. Traders need to consider taxes on FX trading gains, safety and security of their funds, risk management, trading platforms, and strategies.
Beginner traders often use high leverage, ignore risk associated with leverage, and open oversized positions. One or two such trades might work, but ultimately, this approach will end in a blown up account. Leverage helps traders increase their purchasing power. For example, 50:1 leverage means that for every dollar deposited, traders get to manage 50 dollar worth of assets.
Many brokers are offering 500:1, 1000:1 or even unlimited leverage to their clients. Having a risky approach to trading is actually counterproductive here’s why:
- Trading is risky, however, everything is risky in life and risks need to be measured and only taken when they make sense in terms of probabilities. When analyzing financial markets, traders can never be sure how the price will change, financial analysis is simply a prediction.
- Some predictions are wrong, while others bring profits. In order to trade profitably, the sum of profits need to be larger than the sum of losses.
- Traders should never risk everything on a single trade. Consistency and profitability in trading comes with a working trading system and good risk management.
How can more involvement in the financial sector benefit females?
As already mentioned, financial industries offer well-paying jobs and opportunities to increase wealth. Traders can actively speculate on asset prices or invest passively in the equity market. Financial markets can help women and girls become more independent financially.
Most studies on gender-based violence are focused on its physical, sexual, and psychological manifestations. However, there is one more form of violence that is often missed out, economic violence. A large number of women and girls have no other choice but to remain with their partner due to financial reasons. Learning about how the money is created, distributed and collected can help more girls create businesses, find career opportunities and build wealth.
In addition, women and girls can use financial resources to build a better standard of living for themselves and their loved ones.
How can the world benefit from the increased number of females in the financial world?
More females in the workforce will increase competitiveness. And increased competition typically brings better products and services for the customers. In addition, it should be mentioned that women improve corporate governance. Research shows that companies with more females on boards outperform those that have less.
More females in the financial field can also fight stereotypes. Financial jobs are viewed as male jobs in most places. More women in the sector can also decrease the pay-gap between males and females. Although career preferences is only a single pillar of the pay gap, it is an important aspect.
