Skip navigation

Female minorities

or Register to post new content in the forum

48 RepliesJump to last post

 

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Oct 2, 2006 8:57 pm

I apologize if I seemed abrupt before.  I don’t want to minimize the problem.  Women and minorities DO face challenges in many industries, including this one.

Recruiting qualified women and minorities has been a priority for all of my clients.  I’m frustrated that so much media attention seems to imply otherwise.

Great strides forward have been made in recent years.  More are still to come.  But I’m frustrated by the suggestion that we have stopped walking.

Oct 3, 2006 12:38 am

Am not shilling for RJF here, but I, too, have heard of no issues there with EEOC litigation. Am sure there are a few isolated cases, but overall, they seem to have few problems.

Oct 3, 2006 2:26 pm

[quote=JCadieux]I am so sick of this topic.  This is a FAWOMFT.

I have met many, many successful female and/or minority financial advisors. 

I have heard rumors that female brokers are MORE likely to be successful, because they have slightly better than average long-term retention rates among clients.  I have no substantiation, but I would not be surprised if it was true.

I have also heard that there are far fewer NASD complaints about female and minority brokers.

Yes, there are bad apples and clueless dinosaurs out there.  And no, I don’t believe that the numbers are as balanced as they could be.  But I think that these issues arise in virtually every industry with a sales force.
[/quote] Hit the nail  right on the head…

Oct 3, 2006 3:09 pm

[quote=ymh_ymh_ymh]Am not shilling for RJF here, but I, too, have heard of no issues there with EEOC litigation. Am sure there are a few isolated cases, but overall, they seem to have few problems. [/quote]

I'm not here to knock RJF, or anyone one else for that matter, or to defend anyone, but I think it’s futile, this sort of issue to pronounce this firm or that as “clean” and another as “not clean” because there are or are not ongoing cases.. <?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

These sorts or problems don’t emanate from boardrooms, there aren’t any firms that have let’s-pick-on-the-women/minorities policies. The complaints, to the extent that they’re genuine, all come from the environment at the branch or department level, and always seem to involve a contravention of firm policy. Given that, so long as firms employ humans, there will be issues and no firm is immune.

Oct 4, 2006 1:27 pm

Ignore Helter Skelter

Oct 4, 2006 8:08 pm

[quote=maybeeeeeeee]Ignore Helter Skelter[/quote]

Always a good idea....

Oct 4, 2006 9:14 pm

Thank you Mike, it is easy as he adds no value.

Oct 5, 2006 11:44 pm

[quote=babbling looney]

This job is difficult for anyone and harder for a woman because of many things not least among them is cultural stereotyping.  In addition to the hurdles that men in upper management either purposefully or subconsciously put in the way, women tend to put up their own barriers to success in the financial industry.

As to being a woman of ethnicity it is even harder depending on which culture/ethnicity you are from.    In some cultures women do not participate in business at all and are actively discouraged from any participation in anything outside of their home life.  It think it would be extremely difficult to become a successful woman broker/advisor in a culture where women are not allowed basic freedoms or where they are looked upon as second class citizens.  In other cultures ethnic women can become quite successful.

As an example:  I have a colleague who is a very successful female broker. She is of Chinese heritage (3rd generation American, Stanford educated) and speaks several languages and dialects of Chinese, French and Vietnamese.  Her niche is in the SF Bay Area dealing with the large immigrant population and the many "Mom and Pop" type businesses they have established.  She does very well, where I would never be able to break into that market.  They trust her because she is "like them".

However, as talented as she is, she would NEVER be able to do business in my market.  The reality is that people want to do business with people like themselves.  Is it unfair?  Yes. But, you all know my feeling on that......life isn't fair....get over it.  This also relates to the  Smith Barney lawsuit.   It is true that some men will not want to do business with a woman, just as it is true that some women would prefer to do business with a man.  Cultural stereotyping again.  This seems to be more of a problem with the older clients than the younger ones.  Should SB distribute clients to advisors that they feel will not be able to retain the accounts in the name of political correctness.  I think not.

Should companies actively recruit and encourage ethinic minorites to become brokers (men or women), of course.  But we need to keep in mind that broker/dealers are in business to make money and if the niche market isn't profitable (for a man or a woman) or if the cultural bias of the ethnic market is such that a woman can't be successful, then the reason there are few or no brokers there is not discrimination.  It's just good business and financial decisions that make it so.

[/quote]

You hit it right on target!!

I am an asian american young yuppie.  It took me a full year to figure out that my success ratio with other asian american yuppies is 10 times easier.  Yes, I can acquire old white men as clients, but I don't have to fight much for a 33 year old asian professional yuppie.  It's a no brainer.  I had a mentor when I started my first month who told me to not turn my back on my people.  My people meaning those who look, act, think the same way I do. 

I am sure there are those that do well with people who are not similar to themselves, but I ask why would you want to work that inefficiently?