Happy Monday!
Forbes published a terrific article detailing Credit Suisse’s Gender 3000: Women in Senior Management. The headline, “More Women on the Board Means Higher Returns for Firms” says it all. The statistics are stunning – having more women around does lead to outperformance on many levels. The issue, which the report and article detail, is that there is still a shortage of women in the pipeline, and even more worrisome, women in management were limited to running the support functions. The article begs the question that if markets are efficient, and adding women to boards and senior management improves returns, why are companies not adding more women to these roles? The full article can be found here:http://www.forbes.com/sites/karenhigginbottom/2014/10/02/more-women-on-the-board-means-higher-returns-for-firms/
The next article tackles the lack of diversity in asset management. From CIO magazine, the article is aptly titled “Whiteout.” I will quote “Nearly 90% of senior money managers in the US are white. African Americans make up 12% of the nation’s workforce, and but hold 1% of top investment roles. The same story goes for Hispanic and Latino populations, which account for 16% of the overall job market and 2% of high-level investors. Women represent 47% of the workforce, and 18% of asset managers. Serve your country in the military, and your chances of finding employment in financial services drops by about 30%. For people with disabilities, their likelihood falls by roughly 13%. Those who see asset management as a true meritocracy have either failed to consider the next step in their logic, or—more alarmingly—they have considered it.” The full article can be found here:  http://www.ai-cio.com/channel/NEWSMAKERS/Whiteout.html
And from the “what can I do about the situation” file? There was a great opinion piece in the Washington Post “Women Should and Do Have the Power to Speak Up” by Amanda Burns. While I truly believe there are no ‘shoulds’ in life, only choices (‘should’ creates guilt and guilt is just a waste of precious time), I very much took the author’s point that if women do not speak up, it is a wasted opportunity. We are 51% of the population and have a different perspective, so find your voice and be a part of the conversation. The full article can be found here:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/women-should–and-do–have-the-power-to-speak-up/2014/10/03/6fd480b2-48a5-11e4-a046-120a8a855cca_story.html
If the first two articles made you want to drop out of the workforce, my favorite article of the week came from the New York Times: “The Contrarians on Stress: It Can Be Good for You.” The article explains that while having too much work can feel overwhelming, boredom and menial chores (laundry anyone?) can be just as bad for your health! And all stress is not created equal. Not having challenges in our lives can lead to depression-like symptoms. The full article can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/04/your-money/the-contrarians-on-stress-it-can-be-good-for-you-.html?_r=0
We have terrific events coming up in October that you will not want to miss! In Houston, Neiman Marcus is hosting us for a cocktail party and private event including an award winning makeup artist, fashion show, great food and great company all to support girl’s education, so you can have fun and give back to the community at the same time! And speaking of fundraisers, we have our third annual Boots & Blackjack Casino Night in Dallas – grab your significant other, colleagues and friends and join us for this great fun event! Lastly, and certainly not least, we have dinner with 2 dynamic CIOs in Austin. You will not want to miss what they have to say!
We look forward to seeing you all at an event soon!
Kind regards
Christine