Women in Investment Management

CFA Society Mississippi is proud to announce our collaboration with the CFAI Women in Investment Management (WIM) Initiative to further support the advancement of female leaders. We have joined alongside many other CFA societies and FPA chapters around the world who are part of this collaboration designed to support and empower women from all backgrounds and cultures.

This is a grassroots campaign:

  • To empower female professionals across all facets of the finance industry
  • To support the advancement and development of female leaders, as well as to celebrate their accomplishments
  • To establish a broad-based community and share resources to promote our shared vision
  • To create demand for diversity

Our Goal Through This Collaboration

Standing alongside more than 80 CFA societies and FPA chapters across US, Canada, EMEA and Latin America, we see the new world of virtual programming as an opportunity — to build a broader community that is geography-agnostic, to share resources and information for the ultimate benefit of our combined member base, and to create high-quality programming that celebrates the accomplishments of female leaders, while empowering each of our members in their personal career journey.
Our initial goal with this collaboration is:
  • To join alongside other societies in creating a unique program series that provides exceptional professional development guidance and showcases talented, accomplished female leaders in the finance industry.
  • To co-market high-quality programming of the participants of this collaboration, and in the same vein
  • To offer valuable networking opportunities for our member base.
Elevating and showcasing talented, accomplished women has a powerful impact on the diversity dialogue. To see that women from all backgrounds and cultures can and do succeed at the highest level of finance can be both empowering to other female professionals and inspiring to those who come after us. We hope that this initiative will help to inspire young female professionals to shoot for the highest positions of leadership within their organization.

Establishing a support network is critical to career success and perhaps more important than ever as many of us have had to adjust to a virtual work environment. This collaboration will enable enhanced networking opportunities at all levels and facilitate the formation of a peer support system for members.

Why does the industry need more women?

Despite immense progress towards diversity, the reality remains that there are still relatively few women in senior leadership roles and even fewer minority women.  This means that women often lack the natural mentorship and sponsorship that tends to take place at the middle and senior levels, necessitating that they work harder to establish their own support network.

Women, as the minority in the finance industry globally (regardless of country and geography), are the universal diversifier.

The 2016 CFA Institute study on "Gender Diversity in Investment Management" suggests strong business and values-driven support for greater diversity, in which gender diversity is key.

Diversity matters because diverse groups of people bring different perspectives to problem-solving. Industry participants now acknowledge the importance of gender diversity, and the importance of work structure and flexibility in attracting a diverse workforce.

While reasons driving firms to seek greater diversity may differ, an effective understanding of workforce composition and motivations are critical contributors to the collaborative cultures we need in the investment industry.