Women in Financial Services Webinar Shows Self-Advocacy is Key to Career Development

Today, it is vitally important for women to be able to self-advocate and have the skills, and approach, to share their ideas within the firm in order to succeed in careers in the financial services industry.  At the recent Fitch Learning webinar entitled “Women in Financial Services – Advocating for Yourself” on 25 May, 72% of participants agreed that learning to self-advocate is key for gaining opportunities to develop skills and expand your experience in the sector. 

A recent “What Women Want Workplace Survey 2022“conducted by Indeed and Luminary of over 2,000 women asked them to gauge their work satisfaction. This study included questions on self-advocacy and interestingly, 73% believed that women who self-advocate are perceived more negatively than men who self-advocate in the workplace, and a majority (56%) believed that women of color have a perception disadvantage compared to white women. The majority of respondents (48%) said self-advocacy was supported by higher ups in their organization, while only 23% say it is not. General anxiety and shyness were cited as the main reason for women not being able to self-advocate enough (59%), fear of retribution by 43% and 31% were afraid of being labelled aggressive.

Key Insights and Findings

Kelly Shannon, Executive Coach and Training Facilitator for Fitch Learning, outlined the steps that the webinar participants could take to advocate for themselves and highlight their abilities. She also shared how to conduct positive conversations with colleagues and leaders to help achieve your career vision and business goals.

Polls were conducted amongst the participants that showed current attitudes to self-advocacy:

• 59% self-advocate on occasion with someone with whom they have a strong relationship
• 30% rarely self-advocate in the workplace
• 71% agreed that learning how to advocate for yourself can support your wellbeing, set boundaries and prioritize the important work

There are four key steps to effective self-advocacy:

• Reflect on your inner dialogue
• Know what you want
• Communicate simply and with confidence
• Negotiate empathetically

The webinar replay and suggested reading materials are available via the links in the Resources section below.

Hosting the webinar, Sarah Butt, Senior Partnership Director at Fitch Learning, said:

“The topic of self-advocacy is clearly important for female professionals at all stages with their professional careers. Our participants came from a broad mix of backgrounds, the largest proportion (34%)  were career professionals with 16+ years of experience, and then 23% with track records of 2-5 years just starting out on their professional journeys. I’m glad that we’ve been able to provide insight for more experienced professionals to step into leadership roles, and also share some of our top tips to help emerging female talent better manage their futures.”

Kelly Shannon, Executive Coach and Training Facilitator for Fitch Learning, commented:

“Self-advocacy is one of my favorite topics, because I think when we can advocate for ourselves, the more we can bring about the big visions that we hold for our careers and for ourselves. I’ve learned first-hand exactly what it takes to advocate for myself in investment banking and how to help other women overcome gender-stereotypes in this highly competitive financial services industry. Senior people above us often see self-advocacy as an important step in our development and a way of crossing that bridge into being considered as a senior player potentially with an executive presence. So, that’s why getting a little bit uncomfortable about speaking for ourselves and then finding out what works best to uncover the road blocks is really worth it in the longer-term for many female professionals to achieve their career ambitions.”

Resources – Self-Advocacy

• The webinar replay is now available to download here.
• A study from Indeed and Luminary –The Self-Advocacy Gap for Women (Plus How To Overcome It).
• A book to understand mindset/approach –The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey.    
• A Book to reflect on creating time to self-advocate –Do Less: A Revolutionary Approach to Time and Energy Management for Ambitious Women by Kate Northrup.    
• Harvard Business Review – Women Entering the Workforce — Here’s How to Get What You Want by Marisa Porges.
• Forbes – Five Steps Women can Take to Self-Advocate by Cindy Wahler.