On International Women’s Day let's not be satisfied by #inspo alone. International Women's Day is a call to *action*.

My thoughts on the dilution of IWD messaging, how it intersects with pushback against DEI, and how to move from inspiration to action.

You likely know someone - or several people - who have had an abortion. If you know me, you know at least one. Nobody owes anyone a public telling of their abortion story. But I want to share mine.

To my fellow white woman readers, I’m sure you know what it feels like to be the “only” in the room. The only woman on a team, the only woman in a management meeting, the only woman on a committee, or the only woman at a client dinner.

Of course, not only do you know how hard it is to be the “only,” but you also know how hard it was to get into that room. So now that you’re inside, use that leverage to hold the door open and welcome others in.

When I was a girl, I wanted to be President. A child of the eighties, I was told by family, teachers, and the media that if I worked hard, I could be whatever I wanted. I was in elementary school when I looked at the posters on my classroom wall and realized that our President, Vice President, and all the former Presidents and Vice Presidents were all men. I realized then that I couldn’t actually be whatever I put my mind to. The Presidency was for men only; women and girls did not belong.

A couple of years into working in finance, I had a similar realization. Though there were some women in executive roles, and I eventually became one of them, we were few and far between.

What I’ve found in my conversations is that many advisors and financial services executives do care, but they just don’t know how to talk about it, or it makes them uncomfortable. But staying silent on an issue you’re uncomfortable with discussing is a choice, and not a smart one.

With that, here is what I’ve learned from those conversations about advisors’ challenge around discussing race, and some thoughts on how to overcome and work with the discomfort around these conversations.

Perhaps you’ve read studies showing that diverse organizations are likely to financially outperform industry medians.

Perhaps you agree with the moral imperative of working toward equitable and inclusive workplaces.

In either case, you may find yourself in agreement in theory, but struggling for how to move from theory to action.

The last two months of protests and political action as a result of George Floyd’s murder are a referendum on the criminal (in)justice system that punitively impacts Black Americans.

You might be thinking, “OK, but what does race have to do with financial services?”

Well, everything.

Do you work in financial services and want to learn more about racism and what you can do to help? Let’s chat.

Last year, I wore a Black Lives Matter shirt on stage at a financial services conference. Among the audience feedback about my presentation were comments that my shirt made people uncomfortable. A shirt - one that asserts the basic humanity of Black folks- made people uncomfortable.

Financial services has a racism problem.

One of the most common pieces of feedback I hear about my newsletter and social media presence is, “you have such an authentic voice.” The reason it is authentic is that it’s just me. I don’t have a ghost writer or copywriter, and I no longer have corporate communications standards to which I have to conform. Financial services marketing can feel like a sea of look-alike and sound-alike messaging; embracing my personal communication style made my messages stand out from that crowd.

The stories that landed in my inbox were horrifying and disturbing. Last March, I asked women in finance to send me their personal experiences with sexual harassment and discrimination. Examples of pay inequity, unwanted touching, vile comments, and even rape flooded my inbox. I relayed many of these stories in my Do Better series, which I published from October to December of last year.

Last week David Solomon, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, was interviewed during Davos coverage and spoke about diversity and an initiative the bank will start later this year.

“From a governance perspective, diversity on boards is a very very important issue and we’ve been very very focused on it.” He goes on to describe a 2020 initiative for their US and Europe business, in which Goldman will “not take a company public unless there is at least one diverse board candidate, with a focus on women.” This requirement goes up to two in 2021.

As you might imagine, if we’re talking about the intersection of financial services and diversity, I’ve got thoughts to share.

I have tried to write this “conclusion” installment of the Do Better series at least a dozen times. I want to tell you what I've learned in collecting, writing, and publishing the Do Better series. I want to share what I noticed from readers. I want to answer the common questions I've received. But to begin unpacking all of that is far too much for one article. And it definitely feels like it is too much for me to get my mind around right now. Turns out that there's no way to put a tidy little bow on such an enormous issue.

As I’ve been publishing the Do Better Series, I’ve been receiving many messages from women who are grateful that this series is shining light on their lived experiences in financial services, and sometimes they share one or two of their own experiences with me. I’m sharing this anonymized note, with permission of the woman who wrote it, so you can see how wide reaching and frequent this issue is.

As I began publishing the Do Better series, many people reached out to me- friends, colleagues, journalists, strangers. The response was so much more than I expected that I slowed down the pace of publication so I could better manage requests and correspondence as they came in.

The most common type of correspondence I received was women sharing their own terrible stories with me. I read every story and replied to as many as I could. Some of the women were willing for me to share their anonymized stories publicly. The stories below are told by the women-in-finance who experienced them and are shared with their permission, in the words of the women who wrote or spoke them to me. I edited some submissions for clarity, length, and to remove identifying details of all parties.

Leaving a firm or a role at an inopportune time can be damaging to a career trajectory. Our industry often wonders why so few women make it to the C-Suite; women opting out of abusive workplaces is an overlooked factor.

The following stories are from women who left their jobs, changed roles, and interrupted their careers- not because they wanted to, but because they felt they had to leave a bad situation.

Women who experience harassment, assault, and discrimination often don’t report the episodes for fear of retribution. Some women rightly fear retaliation that could ruin their career or bring mental or physical harm to themselves and their families. This fear of reporting silences victims and allows a culture of harassment and assault to continue. When women do report, their reports are often dismissed or brushed off. The stories are shared with their permission, in the words of the women who wrote or spoke them to me.

Harassment and discrimination are a regular part of work life for many women. Some of the incidents are obviously gross and awful. Others may seem small, innocuous or just a funny joke. “Microaggression” is a term often met with derision by people who haven’t been on the receiving end of such comments. But these subtle acts of discrimination or harassment against underrepresented groups can make individuals feel unwelcome, less likely to contribute to a conversation, ask for support they need, take risks, or continue to work at an organization. A thriving business needs all of their employees to feel comfortable doing all of those things. One incident, alone, may seem like no big deal, but a week, year, or lifetime full of comments, jokes, and objectification adds up; and it’s exhausting.

Below are stories of day-to-day harassment in the financial services workplace. The stories are told by the women-in-finance who experienced them.

Race, age, sexual orientation, citizenship status, and disability all factor into discrimination and harassment. Women in those and other marginalized or underrepresented groups face a compounding factor; racism and other types of bias can exacerbate the negative effects of sexual harassment and discrimination.

Below are stories of incidents in which women who self-identify as part of an underrepresented group experienced harassment because of their identity as part of that group.

Despite advances in hiring and pay practices, women working in financial services in the US are paid less on average than their male counterparts and are underrepresented at the senior leadership and board levels. The statistics are even bleaker for women of color. As the stories below illustrate, pervasive gender based discrimination still exists.