Exploring the Business of Money with a Few ‘Girls Who Invest’
In recent weeks, Knowledge@Wharton High School began noticing young women on the Wharton campus in Philadelphia, Pa., U.S., who were wearing hats and carrying bags inscribed with three simple words: Girls Who Invest. Since we happen to know lots of girls with this interest – thousands from around the world have participated in our annual KWHS Investment Competition for high school students – we decided to look further into this intriguing GWI sorority. Who were they? Why were they here? And were they truly stock market devotees?
Turns out that most of these “girls” were actually young women of 19 and 20 who had just finished up their sophomore years at colleges around the U.S. They were all participants in a Wharton campus-based summer program developed by Girls Who Invest, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing the number of women in portfolio management and executive leadership in the asset management industry. Asset management is the management of clients’ investments by a financial services company, usually an investment bank. Founded by Seema Hingorani, a champion dedicated to getting more women involved in the finance industry, Girls Who Invest trains young women about finance in hopes of getting 30% of the world’s investable capital managed by women by 2030.
The organization maintains that women investment managers in the U.S. in the $15 trillion mutual fund marketplace have fallen from 10% of the industry in 2009 to less than 7% today. In alternative asset classes, women represent 6% in private equity, 4% in real estate and 3% in hedge funds. The pipeline of young women moving into these types of careers is not promising, in part because they don’t understand the industry and they don’t have available role models.
Girls Who Invest wants to fundamentally transform the finance-industry landscape. “A lot of young women who are [college] freshmen have no idea that the asset management industry exists,” said Janet Cowell, CEO of Girls Who Invest and a recent speaker at the Wharton Global Forum in New York City. Cowell joined the Knowledge@Wharton radio show, which airs on Wharton Business Radio on SiriusXM, to discuss why it’s important to get more women and minorities involved in finance. “People have vague notions of banking, but they don’t really know what that means. So, it’s exposing them to the industry and the opportunities, and dispelling some of the myths about the finance industry or at least giving them a more holistic perspective. It’s not all the Wolves of Wall Street or some of these movies they’ve seen. And it’s not all about greed. Finance can be about social impact. As they start learning that, we have young women who have the quantitative skills and interest, and we train them.”
KWHS set out to meet some of this summer’s Girls Who Invest scholars to find out about their interest in the financial industry and some of their most valuable lessons from the four weeks they spent learning about finance at Wharton. As part of the program, all of the girls are now working in a six-week paid finance-related internships. The hope is that they continue to engage with their Girls Who Invest network as they build their careers and ultimately boost the number of women in top finance positions. “To me, the combination of women and finance and education is just one of the most powerful on the globe,” observed Cowell. “We’ve seen study after study. If women can manage their own money, then families are better, violence is reduced, nutrition goes up…if more women manage money at portfolios, you see greater diversity of hiring, more optimization of portfolio returns. It’s a better outcome with so many collateral benefits. There’s certainly an intellectual understanding that diversity of thought in all its forms, including gender, is a good thing for business. Getting to the result is harder.”
We’ve profiled a few of the aspiring teen asset managers below. Look for them on Wall Street (and throughout the financial services industry) in a few years.
GWI Scholar: Olivia Ott, rising junior at Princeton University, studying public policy and economics
Money Motivation: “I had always thought about finance before this program with not such a positive lens. There are a lot of people who are focused on the money. That was one reason why I was intimidated by getting into finance to begin with. A lot of times those people can be very loud and overwhelming. It can give a negative perception of the industry. The people at Princeton pursuing finance are very intense. I was meeting kids who had been on a finance track for years and I wasn’t. I now realize that was a very skewed perspective of the industry. A lot of the asset managers and portfolio managers that we’ve met in this program came from a liberal arts background.”
Top GWI Takeaway: “An important thing to realize is that there are certain types of financial firms and investment strategies focused on doing some sort of social good. We’ve been learning about ESG investing, which is Environmental, Social and Governance Investing [which refers to three central factors in measuring the sustainability and ethical impact of in investment in a business]. That is something directly designed to make things better, but through the use of financial tools. We also found out about foundations and investing for not-for-profits. All of that combined has shown me that there is still a way to be in finance and pursue some form of public service. I was very interested in law and politics from the social-good perspective, and I’m seeing those worlds align with finance.”
Best Advice: “Talk to people who do different types of investing or work in finance. Ask questions. Ask them specifically what they do. That’s a good piece of life advice: ask questions all the time.”
Internship: Partners Group, Denver, Colorado
GWI Scholar: Victoria Flores Najas, rising junior at Claremont McKenna College near Los Angeles, California, majoring in economics
Money Motivation: “I’m really interested in technology, and my interest in finance started with cryptoinvesting. Four years back I read the Bitcoin Whitepaper and I thought it sounded like an amazing technology. This was before everyone started talking about cryptocurrencies. People thought I was crazy buying bitcoin, but it ended up being a great investment because last December it jumped up to $20,000 and I had bought it around $1,000. I sold my bitcoin then and made $7,000. I still have .22 of a bitcoin just in case it goes up again. I started by learning the fundamentals. Right now there are so many different cryptocurrencies people are trying to buy in these initial coin offerings, but if you don’t dive into the fundamentals and understand how the technology works, you could get scammed and lose money. You shouldn’t put money into something that you don’t understand.”
Top GWI Takeaway: “It’s so incredible to be with a bunch of talented, smart, nice women. These women genuinely want to help and we all want to succeed together. That is something I haven’t encountered before. In general, it’s very competitive with women. We feel that there are only a few spots at the top and we have to take each other down. Here, there are enough opportunities, and if we help each other out it’s better for each individual.”
Best Advice: “When I was younger finance sounded scary, but it really isn’t. You can have an interest in health care or technology and that translates into finance in some way. Consider your interest in one thing and see how it connects to finance. I was interested in technology and then saw how it connected to finance. That made it less scary. Fintech or financial technology is actually really exciting right now.”
Internship: Axa Investment Managers, San Francisco Bay Area
GWI Scholar: Rachel Simpson, rising junior at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, majoring in economics
Money Motivation: “Coming from a liberal arts background, I wanted real-world knowledge about finance. My parents aren’t in finance and I don’t have much of a background in finance. With econ as my major and learning theoretical things, it was worrisome to me. Am I going to be way behind everyone else? But [the guest speakers we have met during the program] told us that you learn everything on the job.”
Top GWI Takeaway: “In investment banking, they’re always making DCF models. I’ve always wondered, ‘What does this stand for? What are they doing?’ While we were here we worked in Excel and found out about DCF. DCF stands for Discounted Cash Flow [and is a valuation method used to evaluate the attractiveness of an investment opportunity.] I saw a [company] income statement, balance sheet, working capital, cash flows; these are all different sheets within Excel that you bring together to create the DCF. I also saw how it intertwined with finding the value of a company, because you have to account for inflation and how much a company would be worth in five years.”
Best Advice: “Start reading the news! Even if it’s just one article about finance. You can sign up for alerts on your phone when anything happens in the market. That way you can learn about different financial terminology. The most nerve-wracking part of this industry is speaking to professionals and not sounding dumb or ignorant about the topics. I read The Wall Street Journal, and you can also listen to Bloomberg while you’re walking to class, just so you can hear the terminology.”
Internship: Vista Equity Partners, Austin, Texas
GWI Scholar: Lucy Grierson, rising junior at University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Money Motivation: “At the business school at Michigan, a lot of people go into finance. It’s a new world to me because my dad was never on Wall Street. I was interested in learning more. I’m part of the Michigan businesswomen’s club. I do notice a lot of women at my school don’t go into the roles that men go into. They go into marketing. I wanted to learn the other side of finance and business.”
Top GWI Takeaway: “I’ve heard of the term junk bond before, but I couldn’t understand why anyone would invest in them. The word has such a negative connotation. I’ve learned that junk bonds are high-yield bonds. They have a high risk of default, but they have a high return and offer higher yields than bonds with higher credit ratings. And they can actually be valuable investments for some investors.”
Best Advice: “A lot of young people are told to do what you’re passionate about. I say do something that challenges you. Don’t’ think about it too much. I tend to overthink about whether I really like something. Nothing is going to be this absolutely perfect fit. But as long as you’re learning, you’re going in the right direction. Get on a path and start learning as much as you can. When you’re not learning as much anymore, then it may be time to take a different path. I still have a lot to learn in the finance field. It would not do me justice to shy away right now because I’m just beginning to learn.”
Internship: Charles Schwab Investment Management, Denver, Colorado
Related Links
- Girls Who Invest
- How Girls Who Invest Prepares Young Women For Wall Street
- Information on Girls Who Invest Programs for Students
- K@W Podcast: Building a Pipeline for Women in Finance
Conversation Starters
Janet Cowell said, “There’s certainly an intellectual understanding that diversity of thought in all its forms, including gender, is a good thing for business. Getting to the result is harder.” What does she mean by this? Do you think it’s important for more women to get into the asset management business?
Olivia Ott talks about how her perception of the industry does not match the reality. What is your perception of asset management and finance? How is Girls Who Invest working to change perceptions?
Have you worked in a finance-related internship or job? What did you do and what are your key takeaways?
A bigger presence of women in the area of business management if essential. I personaly don’t know if it’s correct to assume that woman have a different way of thinking when compared with man in waht concerns this area, but to be too restricted to any specific “kind” of people (specific gender, ethnicity, whatever) is archaic and not beneficial at all to any sector. So there is a considerable importance in correcting this concentration of men.
Well, the vision that people in general have about this market is one of a bunch of heartless, greed peolpe seeking more and more proft, in order to get richer. But it’s not like this. Of course, it’s in some e way about “making” money, yet it can be done without damaging people and can be used to generate good for the world. To train the future business leaders to know the imortance of it, and to select people using as a criteria their will to help the world, making it a better place, is a way to reinforce this perspective.
I partipated of WHARTON’s Investiment Competition once and it was when I “fell in love” with business and financial area. Unfortunatly I did not got into the global final, but I got into the 20th first and participated of brazilian finals. It was a very enriching experience for me. I’m still in the second year of High School and intend to participate on it again. Now I’m searching more and trying to discover the best criteria of analisis of maket (what basically what I have to do to go better in the competition, if anyone here is interested in it or has tips, I’d be glad to know more and talk about (: ).
One point that I’d like to give more “spotlights” is specifically the phrase “Finance can be about social impact.”. It’s a kind of mote of my life and that’s why I want to work with finaces and business. It’s a great implement to generate good things, to help people… And well, it made me happy to see this being highlighted here.
Thanks for your attention.
Hi Ícaro! Thank you for sharing your experience about the KWHS investment competition. It’s great to hear that it ignited your interest in business and finance. We were excited to have so many great teams participate this year from Brazil. Connecting our competition back to this article, it’s interesting to note that overall we had 1,214 male students and 460 female students competing in 2017-2018. Women made up about 27% of the group. The U.S. alone, which is Girls Who Invest’s primary focus, had 552 male student competitors compared to 155 female, about 20%.
Hi Diana! Well, it’s sad to know that so few girls come to participate of this incredible event. And a, even more sad thing is to notice that, actually, this few is a surprisingly “high” percentage… When you look upon girls percentage in STEAM, or at least in Scientific Olympiads, in my country, and I believe that in most countries too, it’s much smaller than 27%. There are those who say that it’s due to some kind of tendency of boys having more facility in this areas when compared to girls. Well, personally, I don’t believe in such a thing, principally because different kinds of intelligence (and ways of thinking and perceiving things) can be used to achieve success, even more if we’re talking about finances, an area that is very versatile. Other argument for this problem that I once heard was that girls have less time to study e put efforts in those things due the obligation that many of them have of taking care of the house. Again, I don’t think that this is the cause, at least not the big one. Of course it’s a problem, any kid should have the studies damaged due to any kind of work, even in home. But see, there are many girls who are top students in their class, this “lack of time” due to work now a days is not so comum, and some boys also have it because they need to help their fathers if some tasks on even in the job itself (I some times did it; two days ago I helped my father covering some merchandise to protect it from the rain). The real villain, I think, are the scar left by a past much more patriarchal than the actual society. A past in which girls were really considered as inferiors and suffered a hard discrimination. Unfortunately, there are people who keeps this archaic thinking, but it’s not the general society. And those scars made the representation os women in these areas be much smaller and now many girls look upon it and feel like if that did not fit them, and also it basically give birth to the wrong separation of “boy things” and “girl things”. Now, THIS is the real problem.
There are some interestings measures that were taken by some scientific competitions in Brazil, in order to attract more girls. A nice one that I saw is what the Brazilian Physics Olympiad proposed to do: give graphene rings to the medalist girls. It’s a good incentive, without any facilitation. But sometimes I think that they do it wrongly, by helping to much the girls, like if they were saying “come and participate, it will be easier for you!” and well, I don’t like it. Girls are as capable as boys, they do not need to be assisted, they do not need to have facilitations. Doing this is not correcting the problems, but instead it’s similar to “sweep it to under the rug”. The competitions are supposed to select the best ones and so they must incentivize the women until all of them that they can be the best and stand on the top, and not blind them telling that they reached the top when they did not yet.
Well, I think that it summarizes what I think about this topic. Maybe Wharton’s Investment Competition will have more girls participating if it adopt some measures, like maybe a “runner up prize”, with symbolic values, to the best girls team, or maybe a rule that teams with more than six participants need to have at least one girl (it won’t stop anyone to participate but would make the incentive between students for a higher participation of girls). But as I said, 27% is a number that makes me ate least optimistic, because it reveals that girls are interested in this field and are fighting for it too. Now we have to try to increase this percentage, and movements like Girls Who Invest take a key role on it.
My biggest takeaway from this article is the power of women as money managers, when it comes to both personal finance for their families as well as client assets. Yes, gender equality in the workplace is an important goal, and it is also a really smart business decision. Women need to see themselves in these roles, know they can develop the necessary skills, and then work hard to fill top asset-management positions. I love the advice of all these young women as they begin to feel more confident with their new financial knowledge and consider their future goals. They are all starting to feel empowered. Their advice, coupled with the advice from the New York Stock Exchange executives in this KWHS article: https://whr.tn/2KaCfVM, is inspiring for everyone, regardless of age.
Every time I was in an awarding of an Scientific Olympiad in my country (Brazil), I found strange that there were much more boys than girls, and it was a truth since 6th grade until High School. Well, I could not accept that there were nothing wrong with it because I knew some very intelligent girls. Before I get into High School, I studied in a regular class and some of the best grades were from girls, they potential was tremendous but they simply did not want to dedicate to this side. When I moved from my school to another and entered in a class focused in Sciences (Math, Physics and Chemistry) I realized that the majority of boys were a problem not just in the Olympiads, but in this area (STEM) itself (ant least in my country, but I believe that it unfortunately extends to other places as well). For me, it’s impossible to assume that this situation is due to a kind of “difficult” that girls would have in this subjects, as some supposes, even because some woman that I know are more than excellent at them. I believe that it’s a result of cultural scars left by a past in which girls were destined to stay in home and take care of things, a work that does not necessarily require much study. Than boys mass-dominated the STEM area. And now, due to the lack of representativity, the young girls don’t see themselves in this areas as much boys do. They do not look and imagine they being successful at it because very few were. They basically judge themselves as incapable and the shore as impossible. Of course, it’s not true, but some of them think it is. And so, the lack of women in this area causes a lack of women entering in this area… a loop. A sad loop…
The solution for this problem is exactly what you said, Diane: “Women need to see themselves in these roles, know they can develop the necessary skills…” and it applies not just to finances but to sciences in general. But, fortunately, brave girls navigated in this not-known sea, breaking into it and them showing the way to the others. Here in Brazil there is a community called Meninas Olimpicas (Olympic Girls) which tries to correct this boys majority in the Scientific Olympiads by incentivizing girls to participate “head on” of them. In order of accomplishing this mission, they post depositions of girls who achieved great success in these competitions.
As I stated in my previous comment, I truly believe that the cultural scars and its consequent lack of representativity is the biggest cause of the few women acting in this kind of competition and going tho this area in the university. Problems like the time some girls have to spend cleaning the house because their parents say they must do it exists of course. But as I already said (previous comment) I myself, a boy, have obligations that spend some of my time, which I could use to study even more (of course, I do this by my own will, but see: in the case of selfish parents that really do care more about if the house is clean of not than if their daughter has good grades or a medal in an olympiad, I think they would prefer to show of themselves due to their daughter award. Anyway, actually they, fortunately, are not majority). Other way to conclude that the problem is in this area (STEM and similar) and not in the girls or their condition is to see that in fact there are many girls having excellent grades and getting into great universities. I’m currently trying to apply to good universities abroad and many of the exemples I have (and follow) of people who did it and got extraordinary results are women (actually, I think that the best results I know are of girls). But many of them simply do not chose this area. And so I think that we can blame this lack of representativity, which comes from a long time ago but is being grativaly erased by groups like “Olympic Girls” and “Girls Who Invest”.
Diversity of thought is important in any business; with it there is a smaller risk of making biased decisions, which may, in turn, lead to negative results. Most successful businesses already advocate for hiring people from a variety of different backgrounds to foster creativity and innovation. In my opinion, gender fits into this diversity.
Women are different from men in many ways, one of which is their interests. They could offer an insight into an investment that a man would have otherwise not thought of – say, for instance, Kylie’s Cosmetics which today is worth $900 million. This might be a stereotypical argument, but I am pretty sure that a heterosexual man would not have thought of investing in such a company, whereas a woman might have. Therefore, an asset management business that integrates and welcomes women into the workplace could possibly have unique insights and advantages over its competitors that do not do so.
Furthermore, women tend to be more cautious than men. They could be great assets for managing the less risky funds, as well as coming up with solid fixed-income investments. Although it is exciting to risk and watch the stock market volatility, asset management businesses need a “devil’s advocate” on the safer side, which is a great role for a woman to take. That is not to say that women can’t also make risky investments, but that is just the general consensus of psychological and sociological studies that I have read in the past.
What I think that Cowell meant by the second part – that “getting to the result is harder” – is that the argument she poses is mostly true in theory; studies have indeed shown that diversity of hiring increases welfare, and specific to the asset management industry, portfolio returns. However, we have not seen enough industries and businesses having taken action towards this- which makes it hard to get to the “result”. Moreover, more diversity means more diverse opinions too, which might make it hard to reach decisions. This obstacle is natural, and its difficulty will depend on the temperaments of the people involved as well as the company’s culture.
Like Olivia Ott’s, my perception of asset management and finance is not an extremely positive one. Although I really like economics and do consider going into finance, I feel like it is still a male-dominated industry. Sheryl Sandberg says that we women have to “lean in” in the workplace, but that is easier said than done. Even in school, I feel uneasy to speak up in a class dominated by boys, imagine the same scenario, but in the workplace!
Moreover, I also imagine the finance industry to be intimidating by nature. To me, it requires people to make quick and sound judgments, as well as be competitive and cutthroat. However, these perceptions were based upon myths and Hollywood movies designed to generate revenue and not create awareness of the industry. They, therefore, may not match reality. This is why I believe that Girls who Invest are playing a major role in changing the perception women have towards the asset management industry. They are doing so by tackling the issue by its roots — educating young women about the industry and destroying myths and untrue perceptions. Also, by aiming to transform the finance-industry landscape with the inclusion of women in finance, GWI is working towards benefiting the industry as a whole.
That brings me to the final part that I believe is essential for young women like me to understand more about the industry, which is work experience. Unfortunately, I have not yet had the opportunity of working in the finance industry. However, it has always been my aspiration to do so, and I hope to craft my academic career to achieve this. Also, I plan on participating in KWHS’s next investment competition to gain some hands-on (although at the same time theoretical) experience and insights on the area. I am keen towards broadening my horizons and learning more about the asset management and finance industry; it truly does seem to be an amazing yet intriguing topic.
Hi Silvia!
I certainly agree with your analysis. As you and some of the GWI scholars have mentioned, the finance industry is often depicted with its misogyny, corruption, and greed. I think this skewed and incomplete depiction of the finance industry is a huge obstacle in diversifying employment in the industry in terms of both race and gender. My relationship in finance began when I interned at a private equity firm in Shanghai, China two years ago. I overheard a private equity manager say it was “fortunate” that many Chinese workers were being burnt, as it helped the sales of a medical company that the firm invested in. It was like a scene straight out of the Wolf of Wall Street, steering me away from the money-driven industry.
However, after talking to more professionals in the finance field and reading articles like this, I have regained my faith in finance and became a co-leader for the finance club at my high school. My biggest concern is the one depicted in this article: the club has an extreme lack of female members (we only had one last year). As you have mentioned, this is unfortunate as diversity fosters more informed decisions. Similarly, Kelly Loeffler of Intercontinental Exchange, who was quoted in the KWHS article titled “Career Insight: Advice from New York Stock Exchange President Stacey Cunningham”, believes that gender should not be a limiting factor for the expression of intellectual curiosity. You mentioned how you felt uneasy in male-dominated classes, and as a male, I never had to go through the same feelings, but I certainly want to change this limiting atmosphere in academic settings. I think your mentioning of Kylie’s Cosmetics is a perfect example of how more female members could allow the male-dominated industry to make more informed and wise investments. Yet even though we recently had a female member take upon a leadership position, many other female classmates I’ve talked told have told me that the finance industry was “disgusting” and filled with greedy, misogynistic men.
These sentiments are certainly understandable, and I believe the way to change these perceptions is through educating people about finance, just as GWI is doing. As you mentioned, experience is the best way to learn about the industry, hence my partner and I are currently working on creating a student investment fund so that students can learn about finance fundamentals by managing a portfolio and making trades in the real world. Like you, we also plan to participate in the KWHS Investment Competition for the first time as well. Furthermore, just after learning about ESG from GWI Scholar Olivia Ott, I am going to research it more and include it in our Investment Policy Statement. I respect what GWI is doing, and I hope by exposing students to the more positive and interesting aspects of finance, I could dispel the incomplete and negative misconceptions. Eventually, I hope students of different genders and races can explore and perhaps commit to the finance industry in the future.
Just like you, I was also once at the spot doubting the finance industry, and I hope you can explore the finance industry more. I really enjoyed reading your comment, and please feel free to respond to any of my ideas.
Hi Silvia! Thanks for your thoughtful comments; I really enjoyed reading them. We are looking forward to having you (and I hope more young women from Brazil) participating in our KWHS Investment Competition this year. Remember, registration begins August 6th!
I think the summer curriculum of this nonprofit organization is very helpful. It mentioned that there are much fewer women professionals than men in the financial market. This may be due to the industry’s prejudice against women. The industry tends to consider women have less advantages than men, or women have more commitments not only to work, but also to their families. Some of these thoughts are true, but some are not. Women need more mentorship and empowerment. As the articles mentioned above, these students brought not much understanding before the camps. After the camps, however, they learned about, and mastered financial knowledge and tools. This learning process will benefit and illuminate their own future.The potential of improving women’s financial knowledge is very big. But the existing problem is that women just are not getting the right guidance and empowerment. For example, these teenagers. They didn’t have much financial knowledge. But through this project, they started to be familiar with finance, and understand finance. With a more positive understanding of money, their life may be improved .
Janet Cowell’s words mean that the diversity of gender brings us different perspectives. The integration of a large number of women workforces can add fresh blood to the industry. In my opinion, women are conservative in the asset management industry and are not as venturous as men. This more cautionary mindset enables women professionals to manage great assets for the less risky funds, while male professionals may encourager bigger risks. A company without women is like a car without a brake, which will run into risks someday.
Olivia Ott talked about how her perception of the industry does not match the reality. Her expression has two points of view. First, she hates the desire to pursue only money or only to be rich. She thinks it is particularly annoying. I have seen a movie, the Wolf of Wall Street, the whole film pinpoints the importance of money. I’m not sure whether this is the belief of the whole financial market. I’m still in doubt if people who hold other values than money will have to change themselves to fit into the atmosphere. Secondly, Olivia thinks that her peers in Princeton have already made a step ahead of her, and she hasn’t started yet. So she felt the pressure. I feel the same way as she did in my school life, but her experience is inspiring. From her point of view, not every company was making money just for money, and not everyone was born in the finance industry. These two understandings are meaningful for many women who want to dig into this field but fear to do so. Although the finance world has been influenced by those very extreme and monetary supremacy, it is not the whole finance world. Rather, it still has some bright sides. For instance, people can make contributions, such as ESG’s 3 social good orientation investments through money.
I am a sophomore student in the state of Ohio. I used to be an intern in an import and export trade company. The experience of this job provides me more understanding of finance. I worked around statistics and data. I will participate more in the industry and accumulate practical experience and insights in the future. This internship took place in China, a country that has often been considered traditional and male-oriented. However, I do not think I have ever been treated differently by my co-workers and my supervisors. The interns, male and female, who came at the same time with me were given the same amount of workload as me. Sometimes the manager even preferred to assign certain tasks to women, instead of men. Since women have some charismatic characters, like patience, moderateness, stability, and carefulness — women in some cases can be more outstanding than men.
Once I asked my dad a question who is an entrepreneur, “Do you think women are treated differently from men in work field?” He said, “No, as an owner of a company, we explore the full potential of every employee and make sure their talent is best used. Otherwise, why should we hire a person and why do we waste our money?” This dialogue between my dad and I partly illustrates the expectations of an employer — it’s not the gender that matters. It’s the capability that matters. Then, we talked about the status of women in China. We both believe that the status of female employee is increasing. But this doesn’t mean inequity has been put to a stop. Instead, more and more people come to speak out about their unfair experience. Even then, it is still a global problem that women are rejected due to stereotypes.
On the basis of that, I hope I can stand out against still-prevalent social injustice and use money for social good, not just to increase individual wealth. I hold optimistic view of the future of female workers. But it will take a long way before we fully embrace that future.