As part of our Diversity on the Desk series, we spoke to Catriona Lawlor, multi-asset trader at Baillie Gifford in New York, about how to make this industry a attractive career path for women, why networking is so important – and why you should always say yes to speaking at conferences.
There’s been definite progress with gender diversity in our industry, though we still have a long way to go. From personal experience, occasions of being the only woman in a meeting room, or one of very few at a conference, are still commonplace – and so we need to work hard as in industry to ‘accelerate progress’ (in the spirit of this year’s International Women’s Day theme).
One topic I’m passionate about is how we make this industry a more attractive career path for women from an early stage. Thankfully, some fantastic organisations are already working on this, such as Future Asset, with whom we at Baillie Gifford partner. Future Asset works with school-age pupils to inspire and inform Scotland’s next generation about following a career in the investment management industry.
Personally, there have been a couple of things. On the smaller end of the scale, I spoke on the main stage at a conference last year – a huge step out of my comfort zone. I firmly believe in being part of the change we’d like to see, so hopefully, helping to address the lack of female speakers our industry attracts at conferences was worth the nerves. On the bigger end of the scale, I recently relocated to the US, where I’m now part of an all-female US trading desk, which feels great – particularly on the buy-side, where I believe we still have the most work to do towards gender diversity.
On an industry-wide scale, there’s been a definite uptick in women-focused networking events and opportunities over the past year, often facilitated by our sell-side partners, which is a positive thing. These events are something I’ll always try to support.
As a desk, and more broadly as a firm, I think we’re in a relatively good place. I’m fortunate to report to a fantastic female role model. I’m also supported and encouraged by our male head of trading to learn, grow, and progress within the team. That being said, representation is vital and our desk in the future will hopefully become more diverse in many aspects. It’s important to recognise that progress in this regard can take time, but I believe that as a desk, and as a firm, we’re taking the right steps to get there in the future.
International Women’s Day is a chance to celebrate women and all they contribute to the world – a lot of which has historically been underappreciated. It’s also a day to pause for thought and remind ourselves – and – everyone else why a more gender-diverse and equitable world would be a very positive place to be.
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