Sylvia Yarbough
Regulatory expert and former Head of Compliance
Last month was recognized as Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day.
As the month progressed, I spent a great deal of time contemplating women’s progress in the compliance and risk management industry.
I interact routinely with many women in this field during various consulting engagements. In addition, throughout my career, as it has grown, I have followed many women of similar experience.
To help women looking to start or enhance their careers in financial services, I wanted to share some observations and a few words of wisdom.
The gender divide is real
More than half (54%) of compliance risk professionals are women. As such, this space is not dominated by men. However, salaries for men are still on average $10K higher than for women, and men hold the most chief compliance officer positions.
On several of my engagements, I worked with Gen Z and younger Millennials of all genders. As a young Boomer in the age of remote working and virtual meetings, I find the next generation remarkably interesting to interact with.
Regardless of gender, the younger generation is much more relaxed and social at work than their predecessors. Collaboration and group consensus seems to be the mantra when it comes to all work efforts.
However, even in 2024, I believe that young women operate differently from their male counterparts. It tends to come across in subtle ways.
For example, we all have become students of virtual etiquette given that it has become a mainstay in our work life. I took March to pay attention to some of the various interactions of this generation in virtual meetings. Although in several of my engagements, the number of women is equal to the number the men, I find that younger women rely on raised hand emojis or group chats to communicate versus speaking up.
In addition, I observed, that when they do speak up, and a male colleague interrupts them, they are quick to defer. In smaller groups, even when it is primarily women in the meeting, younger women tend to present their thoughts or opinions as questions versus statements. In addition, collaboration, and group consensus, often present themselves as a lack of ownership or uncertainty that they are on the right path.
Many may think that I am viewing these interactions as a baby boomer, raised in the 70s and 80s --weaned on feminist idealism and the need for women to be assertive in the workplace. I also started thinking I was being too critical of these young women. As always, I reached out to my network of women professionals to get feedback on this topic.
The generation gap
My network runs the range from older Millennium, Gen X, and Boomers all well into or past the 40-something marker with a couple of decades under their belts in financial services.
They also find the gentler work style refreshing when interacting with Gen Z and the younger Millenium. The general feedback on younger professionals is that they are often eager to learn if it is at their own pace. Younger professionals thrive in group activities versus individual assignments.
However, my counterparts also had similar observations on the younger women’s interaction – with a few outliers.
My peers who worked outside of compliance and risk, in areas of financial services such as operations or revenue-generating businesses, stated that the younger women on their teams did perform well with team goals but seemed to have greater anxieties with individual goals and deadlines even though they often did just as well as their male peers in meeting or exceeding them.
When it came to group projects, the young women on the team took on more detailed tasks often leaving leading or presenting on project progress and outcomes to the male team members. When put in the position of project leader or presenter, some often did not display the same confidence as their male counterparts.
When speaking with my compliance and risk peers, they provided me with similar feedback as to my observations. In addition, some other observations included that the younger women worked well with their business partners in the day-to-day tasks.
However, when it came time to provide difficult feedback or challenge a decision, their male counterparts did better in delivering the message and the business seemed more willing to take the feedback. All said gender did not really matter when it came to difficult interactions with the business on risk topics.
Variable risk tolerance
It seems to be more of a generational gap issue given that management within the business lines is still predominately older white males.
A couple of my peers pointed out that they also felt like there is a growing gap between the under-30 and over-40 compliance risk professional women.
They have experienced higher turnover with newer younger compliance and risk professionals, especially the women, who leave the organization either for other industries or different careers in general.
Compliance and risk work involves analysis, research, a detailed level of knowledge, and a lot of learning new things which can be a great attraction for some younger women.
The constant struggles to communicate and manage risk with their business partners in financial services creates an elevated level of pressure that makes many young people, especially women reevaluate career choices.
Words of wisdom
My words of wisdom, to young compliance and risk women, is to reflect on Women’s History Month.
Many have come before you who experienced the same challenges in negotiating the corporate world.
Some of the lessons we women baby boomers learned still stand today.
Teamwork and group projects are great opportunities to share collaborative experiences. But keep these thoughts in the forefront:
- Be assertive, do not let anyone steal your shine.
- Speak up and speak out when you have a thought or an idea on a topic.
- Do not be afraid to make direct statements with confidence and do not be afraid to ask questions if you do not know the answer. Make sure your communication style clearly differentiates the two.
- There is a substantial difference between being polite versus letting someone else take up your airtime.
- Give yourself time, you can become the trusted advisor of even the hardest case business partner if you are consistent, precise, accurate, and confident with your advice.
- Persevere, compliance and risk may be more than 50% of women but not in the leadership ranks. If this is your chosen field there are still plenty of opportunities to grow your career.
To all the compliance and risk women leaders, please continue to encourage our younger professionals, we know the role is not easy for men or women. Take the opportunity to provide a few gems of wisdom for our younger sisters.
The decades may come and go but the challenges seem to remain the same – women must continue to make a greater effort to stand out, be acknowledged, and be respected at the same level as their male counterparts.
We have survived and thrived. We need every generation to do the same because we, as women, bring another dimension of understanding and wisdom to compliance and risk management.