Loading ...Woman’s Work
As more women walk away from careers on Wall Street in search of a better work/family balance, some major firms have launched aggressive programs to woo them back.
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“I’m a whiz at tying a bow. Really. But of course you wouldn’t know that. There was no reason to bring that up in the office.” The office Helen Tom refers to is Goldman Sachs, where the two of us crossed paths during the course of her twelve-year career at the bank. And it is true that tying bows won’t really help you score a top-of-the-range year-end bonus. But it is a useful skill in Tom’s second career as the owner of Ricky’s Candy, Cones and Chaos, a confectionery store in Red Bank, New Jersey.
After many years of thinking about a different career path and discussing it with her husband repeatedly, Tom decided to take the leap and put her money where her mouth was — quite literally. She invested in a franchise for an expanding candy and party-planning operation. “It was a big juggle, and I’m glad I did it,” she says of her first career at Goldman Sachs, which consisted of 60 hour weeks and three-hour daily commutes — all as she managed the lives of her two young daughters. “I had to let go. I enjoyed what I was doing, but I had to let go.”
She is one of many mid-level financial professionals who chose to turn their backs on Wall Street in search of a better work-life balance. These departures — some voluntary, some forced, and some for a less well-defined reasons — have lead to a thinning of the female ranks as you move up the banking pyramid. In 2006, a New York Times study of aggregated data from nine banks found that women made up just 14 percent of managing directors, despite making up 33 percent of entry-level analyst classes.
For banks, the question is not where the women have gone but how to get them back. In January 2006, the London Business School launched the Lehman Brothers Center for Women in Business, “dedicated to promoting women at all stages of their careers and assisting organizations to attract, retain, and develop the broadest talent pool,” according to Lehman’s website. In addition, the investment bank’s Encore program aims to facilitate re-entry into the workplace for experienced hires. Goldman Sachs initiated a similar series of events called New Directions in March 2006.
Karen Samberg of the Center for Work-Life Policy points out other programs led by top-tier business schools, like the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton-UBS Career Comeback sessions or a curriculum called Back in Business at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, which is subsidized by Citi. The companies hope these efforts will play a crucial role in changing how women are viewed — once you have children, you are not necessarily out forever. In addition, the existence of outreach programs reflects positively on banks when they are trying to recruit women. Indeed, undergraduate or graduate students are getting increasingly savvy about work-life balance options when choosing where to begin their careers, and a firm with a culture that might be a better fit will likely be more attractive.
The skills acquired working in financial services come in handy for women like Helen Tom who embark on second careers. At first glance, it is hard to see the parallels, but she says that working with demanding clients at Goldman was great preparation for the demanding parents who expect her to produce over-the-top birthday parties for their kids. And her quality of life has improved dramatically, mainly because she has more time to spend with her daughters. “Part of me does miss the corporate world,” she admits. “But life is very different, I’m not chasing after express buses anymore.”
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