Contributed by: Angela Palacios, CFP®
Did you know 3 of the 6 partners at The Center are women? We know the value of gender diversity in the ownership and leadership of our firm, which is why we invited Kathleen McQuiggan of Pax funds to join us for a roundtable discussion. We wanted to give clients and friends of The Center the chance to discuss the importance of having women in executive roles, their impact on businesses, and the opportunities they provide for investing. Kathleen is the Senior Vice President of Global Women’s Strategies and Managing Director of Pax Ellevate Mgt. LLC.
Top 3 roundtable takeaways
- Women’s leadership can and should be understood as an investment concept. Many studies have shown that women bring a unique perspective to senior and executive management roles within firms. According to Kathleen, this “secret ingredient” adds profitability, better risk preparedness, more collaboration and more innovation to companies.
- There is an emerging consensus that the status and role of women may be an excellent clue to a company’s growth potential. Despite this, there continues to be a large wage gap between women and equivalent men in the workforce and very little gender diversity among senior management and corporate boards.
- There are many barriers to female participation in management and the boardroom. One of the most easily understood barriers is time out of the workforce.
Women spend an average of 12.6 of their working years out of the workforce to care for children or parents whereas a man only spends 10 months outside the workforce!
This pulling in two directions between work and family responsibilities likely has a lot to do with the disparities that still exist. As I read Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, I’m discovering there are also barriers within ourselves to prevent women from climbing the corporate ladder.
Whatever the reasons, the time for change is now. Having discussions like our roundtable and sharing ideas is part of the solution. Another potential solution developed by Pax is using your investments to express your viewpoint with your dollars. If you would like to learn more please contact your financial planner!
Angela Palacios, CFP® is the Portfolio Manager at Center for Financial Planning, Inc. Angela specializes in Investment and Macro economic research. She is a frequent contributor to Money Centered as well as investment updates at The Center.
Raymond James is not affiliated with and does not endorse the opinions or services of Kathleen McQuiggan or Pax funds. This material is being provided for information purposes only and is not a complete description, nor is it a recommendation. Any opinions are those of Angela Palacios, CFP® and not necessarily those of Raymond James. The information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but Raymond James does not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete. Investing involves risk and investors may incur a profit or a loss regardless of strategy selected. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.