Women on Wall Street

From Bloomberg:

Siebert wasn't the first woman to rise above gender discrimination in the world of finance. One of the earliest documented female investors in the U.S. was Abigail Adams, who ignored her husband John's instructions to invest in land while he was stationed overseas, and instead made a much larger return investing in U.S. government bonds. Contemporary accounts describe Abigail's foray into the investing world as the one source of contention in the couple's otherwise happy marriage, despite her success.

There are also abundant examples of women who went out of their way to de-emphasize or even hide their gender to foster their careers in finance. Among them were the first women to own a Wall Street brokerage, sisters Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin, who had custom-made business dresses designed to hide their femininity and blend in with their male colleagues. Even so, the New York Times headline that announced the firm's opening in 1870 read "Wall Street Aroused," and the story's reporter concluded that "A short, speedy winding up of the firm of Woodhull, Claflin & Co. is predicted."

Top 25 Women in Banking

From American Banker come a list of the top 25 women in banking. Nice collection of short biographies - well worth the read.

Financial News: Most Influential Women

From the Wall Street Journal:

Financial News is set to unveil its list of the 100 most influential women in European financial markets, which includes chief executives, managing directors and senior executives from across the industry.

Of those on the fourth annual FN100 Most Influential Women list, more than a fifth are CEOs, a third are managing directors, 10 are regional heads and 15 are heads of department. The remainder are chairmen, vice chairs, chief financial officers, chief investment officers or chief operating officers. They work in investment banking, asset management, private equity, pensions, regulation, wealth management, hedge funds and trading.

This year's list reflects the industry's continued focus on regulation, the increased role of corporate governance and scrutiny by pension funds as asset owners, as well as the hard work that has gone into restructuring companies in the wake of the financial crisis.

Profiles - FN100 Most Influential Women

Top 100 Women Financial Advisors 2010

From the Wall Street Journal & Barrons, the annual listing of the Top 100 Women Financial Advisors in 2010:

The ranking, which Barron's has been publishing since 2006, includes 25 new members this year and a number of position switches.

See the Full list of the Top 100 as listed by Barrons.

Iraq: Women Only Bank

From Associated Press:

An Iraqi bank has opened a branch entirely dedicated to and operated by women in the holy Shiite Muslim city of Najaf, its chief, who admitted even he could not enter, told AFP Monday.

Abdel Razzaq Mansur, the chief executive of Babylon Bank, said the branch which opened on Sunday had so far worked with 50 clients and expected to be dealing with about 200 within a year.

"In Najaf, there are many women who are business women, and they have companies in many different lines of work," he said, noting the branch's 25-strong staff were composed entirely of women.

The only men working for the branch were special security guards stationed outside the bank on the street, Mansur said.

It will provide loans, investments, deposits and savings in both Iraqi dinars and US dollars.

Women Executives

From Emiliya Mychasuk @ Financial Times:

In examining the best and worst countries to be a female chief executive, what is most surprising is the continuing paucity of female chief executives in developed countries such as Germany and Italy. Stereotypes are especially reinforced in Italy, where many of the female chief executives are either at subsidiary companies, such as Patrizia Grieco at Telecom Italia subsidiary Olivetti, or running family-controlled companies, such as Marina Berlusconi as chief executive of Fininvest.

Peninah Thomson, founder of the FTSE 100 Cross-Company Mentoring programme, argues that childcare isn’t the only problem. In her research as an executive coach, she found that male executives were often “horrified that family-friendly policies were … only 25 per cent of the reason women left”. “They [senior women] look at the top and don’t see someone they want to emulate … They become weary of what they often describe as game-playing, as they discover a greater level of jockeying and competition.”

Financial Times: Top 50 Women in Business
Financial Times: Top 50 Women to Watch

Women in Banking

From the Wall Street Journal:

Now US Banker magazine is finding some bright spots in its annual “25 Most Powerful Women in Banking” issue. Calpers, the giant California pension fund, hired the first female CEO, Anne Stausboll, in its 77 year-history, while Bank of America is said to be grooming Sallie Krawchek, who was recently hired as head of the bank’s Global Wealth and Investment Management unit, as a possible successor to CEO Ken Lewis.

At the top of the US Banker list, for the third straight year, is Heidi Miller, J.P. Morgan’s CEO of Treasury and Securities Services. One notable newcomer to the list is BBVA Compass retail chief Shelaghmichael Brown, who helped with that bank’s recent acquisitions in the US.

The magazine editors rank the women based criteria such as one-year performance, the results of business initiatives, management style and overall influence.

Full List @ US Banker

Women of Wall Street

From Kayla Hutzler @ Women's eNews:

The Museum of American Finance is showcasing 10 famous Wall Street women, two living and the rest historic. The exhibit, which opened June 9, runs through January 26, 2010. It spotlights 10 female financiers.

The exhibit also offers audio and video commentary by contemporary Wall Street women on how they got started, any discrimination they faced and what they're doing now.

Fortune's Top "Women" Lists

Fortune Magazine has released its "lists" for 2009:

• 50 Most Powerful Businesswomen
• 25 Highest Paid Women
• 10 Most Powerful Women in Washington
• Women CEO's
• 10 Global Leaders

Women: Saviours of Banking

From BBC News:

Can women bankers and investment managers get us out of the economic mess that their male colleagues got us into? Will it take women to ensure the future health of the financial sector?

Halla Tomasdottir and Kristin Petursdottir are convinced the answer is yes.

They set up their investment firm Audur Capital in Iceland to prove it.

"Women tend to bring a lot to the table. They think more long-term, they think about the team, and not only themselves. They think more about people, and they see other business opportunities than men."

There is another, crucial difference, they find: "Women are willing to ask stupid questions. We want to understand. "

Phenomenal Women

From Jamaica Gleaner News:

Elaina Gonsalves
"... Gonsalves notes her most impactful accomplishment as the establishment of the unified non-bank financial institutions regulatory authority.

Jamaica is never far from her heart and in her work as a Methodist minister Gonsalves shares her experiences as a Jamaican woman in her interactions with women serving in the armed forces and counselling male/female marital relations."

Andrea Shaw
"Andrea Shaw is assistant director of the division of humanities and an assistant professor of English at Nova South-eastern University in Fort Lauderdale"

Janet Pavliska

From the Boston Globe:
"Janet (Morrison) Pavliska was one to watch her boss closely. As secretary to the president of the Arlington Five Cents Savings Bank, she saw how he carried out his job, and "It looked simple - I said to myself, 'I can do this,' " she told The American Banker in 1985.

And she did. After two decades, she landed the top job, becoming the first woman to do so at a Massachusetts banking operation, according to the Massachusetts Bankers Association."