Room at the top: Women in finance and investing
by Lee McAdoo, Managing Director
Investor Education at TD Ameritrade
Age 35. That’s about when I started to notice that I had fewer female peers.
It shouldn’t have surprised me. Women start to fall back largely due to having families and choosing to opt out of the workforce or scale back professionally just as men pull ahead in their careers. Not only does this shift have a significant impact on women’s personal finances and investing choices, but it also affects the number of women holding careers in financial services.
It can be disheartening to see talented colleagues leave the field. Individual choices—when it comes to work and life—can be difficult and are highly personal, but I do see opportunities for current financial executives, both female and male, to identify and nurture an interest in finance and investing. Why? It’s necessary in order to keep female talent, drive business forward and improve the industry as a whole.
My home life involves two busy daughters—ages seven and five—and a stay-at-home husband. It was my husband’s decision to leave his 20-year career in finance and stay at home with our kids in order to help me advance in my career and reach our goals. He’s supportive of my role as the primary breadwinner. And our situation is not as unique as it once was: 42 percent of mothers are the sole or primary breadwinners in their households and bring in at least half of family earnings. Not surprisingly, 51 percent of women report that they are the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) of their households. Read more here
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See STA Women in Finance February Newsletter here