Women make up more than half of the work force on Wall Street. But breaking into the highest ranks is still largely a man’s sport.
Women account for just 3 percent of the chief executives in finance, according to the consulting firm Catalyst. In corporate boardrooms, women fill 19 percent of the roles; in executive suites, it’s 16 percent.
Their paths to the top are varied. Some, like Esta E. Stecher of Goldman Sachs and Clare Woodman at Morgan Stanley, started their careers at law firms. Christine P. Katziff, Bank of America’s general auditor, and Eileen Serra, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase’s credit card division, worked at top consulting firms before moving into finance. Others like Edith W. Cooper and Sni Harford have been in finance their entire professional lives.
Once they reach the upper echelons, few run the big, revenue-generating businesses like investment banking and trading. For the most part, women tend to lead divisions like asset management, human resources and marketing.
There are some notable exceptions. Blythe Masters of JPMorgan Chase, who oversees a $1 billion-plus business, is one of the most powerful women in commodities trading. As a banker at Citigroup in 2000, Wei Christianson worked on the $3.5 billion public offering of Sinopec, the Chinese oil giant, and now is co-head of Morgan Stanley in Asia.
Women in finance have to strike a delicate balance between tough and tyrannical, explains Ilene H. Lang, the chief executive of Catalyst. Swagger and the willingness to do a deal at any cost are rewarded, she added. But “it’s behavior that’s admired in men and hated in women.â€
