- by Monica J. Weissmann
Commentary on "Men Had Their Chance; New Funds Bet on Women"
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The Wall Street Journal article: |
I am a woman Financial Advisor in an industry where barely 20% of recruits are women. In fact, as a Master of Electronic Engineering I have worked in a male-dominated industry for many years.
While working at IBM I have noticed there was not much of the difference in figures between offices in Israel and in Canada . Actually there were a bit more women employed in Canada than in Israel.
Are the new funds (“betting” on women) a new trend of reality or another marketing trick trying to get investors vote with their money to show approval of being politically correct?
In my 14 years of experience as a Financial Advisor I have confirmed that women have some qualities that are really precious in the business of money management and in any business, which are:
Commitment, Consistency, Caution, Conservative approach (Not all which glitters is really gold!), Creativity, Calm, and many others.
But , … I am not sure that having a woman as a CEO, or having 3 women in the board of directors , will ensure the success of the companies – i.e. investments in the companies.
One reason is that sometimes it takes extraordinary circumstances (usually extraordinary NOT positive circumstances) to have a women elected in a CEO or any C-suite position …
The situation of GM comes to my mind. I can’t imagine a deeper hardship than new CEO Mary Barra is going through these days.
Or Marissa Mayer, who was nominated to a CEO position at Yahoo a couple of years ago. So … My opinion is that women have achieved great strides in business, but …
I will still recommend investments based on the quality of a business and not on the % of gender composition of the C-suite positions.
