I am also a woman who works in finance, with over 10 years in asset management and wealth management in the UK, and have had a significantly more positive experience than you. I don’t think I’ve ever run into overt sexism, to the extent that your question reminds me of Scott Alexander on different worlds. Before you decide not to continue in finance, I suggest looking to see if you can find a different employer with a less toxic culture. They do exist. If you’ve run into the same problems at multiple employers, I see two possibilities that you can actually do something about. (You might just be unlucky, but I can’t advise on how to fix that.)
1) You’re in a specific niche with a more toxic culture than average (the trading floors of investment banking being the paradigm example). In which case you may want to move to a related but different job or category of employer.
2) Please don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s worth considering the possibility that there is some aspect of your behaviour that is exacerbating the problem. For example, having had previous bad experiences, do you assume that any new man you meet will be sexist towards you, and therefore subconsciously signal hostility to men before you’ve even had a chance to get to know each other. I know this suggestion could be interpreted as victim blaming, but please take it in the spirit it’s meant: there is some possibility you’re stuck in a bad feedback loop and it’s worth checking that before doing anything drastic like quitting your career.
I am happy to hear that your experiences with sexism have been less extreme as to mine.
I have no intention to not continue my journey in finance, it would be pretty hard to convince me to leave especially because I know that I have the ability to make things better for other women.
I have considered many times that there is something that I am doing to cause the problem however some concrete facts of sexism have been shown to me that there is nothing beyond my gender have caused. There are countless other experiences of women that can corroborate my experiences as well.
In fact, at the beginning of my career I doubted I would experience sexism as I thought as a North American, I would not see such experiences. I am quite positive no confirmation bias was used. In fact, I have had a man point out to me that another colleague of mine was being sexist towards me. I would love to believe that sexism does not exist and that there is any easy fix of a change to my behaviour.
As for your comment about specific niches, should the niches of finance not be a place for women as well?
I would like to reiterate that I have no intention of leaving my career, my only intention of writing this post was to state why I would no longer sugarcoat my experiences (despite what my firm may wish) to women entering the industry.
I am also a woman who works in finance, with over 10 years in asset management and wealth management in the UK, and have had a significantly more positive experience than you. I don’t think I’ve ever run into overt sexism, to the extent that your question reminds me of Scott Alexander on different worlds. Before you decide not to continue in finance, I suggest looking to see if you can find a different employer with a less toxic culture. They do exist. If you’ve run into the same problems at multiple employers, I see two possibilities that you can actually do something about. (You might just be unlucky, but I can’t advise on how to fix that.)
1) You’re in a specific niche with a more toxic culture than average (the trading floors of investment banking being the paradigm example). In which case you may want to move to a related but different job or category of employer.
2) Please don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s worth considering the possibility that there is some aspect of your behaviour that is exacerbating the problem. For example, having had previous bad experiences, do you assume that any new man you meet will be sexist towards you, and therefore subconsciously signal hostility to men before you’ve even had a chance to get to know each other. I know this suggestion could be interpreted as victim blaming, but please take it in the spirit it’s meant: there is some possibility you’re stuck in a bad feedback loop and it’s worth checking that before doing anything drastic like quitting your career.
I am happy to hear that your experiences with sexism have been less extreme as to mine.
I have no intention to not continue my journey in finance, it would be pretty hard to convince me to leave especially because I know that I have the ability to make things better for other women.
I have considered many times that there is something that I am doing to cause the problem however some concrete facts of sexism have been shown to me that there is nothing beyond my gender have caused. There are countless other experiences of women that can corroborate my experiences as well.
In fact, at the beginning of my career I doubted I would experience sexism as I thought as a North American, I would not see such experiences. I am quite positive no confirmation bias was used. In fact, I have had a man point out to me that another colleague of mine was being sexist towards me. I would love to believe that sexism does not exist and that there is any easy fix of a change to my behaviour.
As for your comment about specific niches, should the niches of finance not be a place for women as well?
I would like to reiterate that I have no intention of leaving my career, my only intention of writing this post was to state why I would no longer sugarcoat my experiences (despite what my firm may wish) to women entering the industry.