Women have been historically underrepresented in the finance field. However, as more women hold leadership positions, the finance world is becoming more open minded.
Lorree Novotny is a controller who works for the Stupski Foundation. Novotny is responsible for handling daily financial transactions and creating yearly financial information. Her experience with finance began when she took an introductory accounting class in high school.
“Debits and credits made sense to me,” Novotny said. “I enjoyed the challenge of finding discrepancies and why accounts were out of balance.”
Ayako Fukudome serves as chief financial officer for the Filoli Historic House and Garden. Unlike Novotny, she did not originally intend to enter finance.
“I worked in a completely different profession right after graduating from college with a major in European studies and linguistics,” Fukudome said. “I realized that in order to become good at what I do, I needed to understand the business and finance side. That’s when I decided to go back to graduate school to earn a master’s degree on accounting and become a Certified Public Accountant.”
While it was not an easy decision for Fukudome to give up what she liked to start over, she does not regret her decision. During her time working as a CFO, Fukudome has experienced both positives and negatives.
“I enjoy analyzing numbers and finding clues to solve problems,” Fukudome said. “I also enjoy learning something new and figur[ing] out how to apply it to make my job easier or make a difference for other people. What I don’t like is I feel I don’t have enough time to keep updated with constantly changing rules and new technologies. Time management is a challenge.”
Fukudome has seen a shift in what the field places an importance on. Whereas in the past the field emphasized mathematical intelligence, nowadays it is emphasizing leadership, computer science and social skills.
“Follow your passion and don’t let any perception of the openness of females deter you from doing so“
“Back in [the] old days, people thought finance folks were good at math and were just a number cruncher,” Fukudome said. “That is not true. Computers will do the work and create beautiful graphs and charts. Instead, we are required to have a higher level of analytical, problem-solving and people skills.”
Technology in particular has been one of the main reasons the finance field has been changing as of late. According to Forbes, factors such as banking technology, artificial intelligence and the popularity and accessibility of apps are the reason for this shift in industry makeup.
Although, historically, finance has been perceived as a male-dominated field, many women feel they are treated equally, a positive trend in a field striving for gender equality. Throughout her career, Novonty feels she has received equal compensation, in addition to being offered robust opportunities to challenge herself.
Finance covers a vast array of responsibilities, therefore the representation of women varies based upon individual companies and positions. Fukudome has noticed an uptick in the number of women working in accounting, especially in leadership, compared to when she started 20 years ago. However, in finance as a whole, female representation has been declining. According to Forbes, women only represent 15% of finance executives despite representing 46% of financial services employees. And according to Investopedia, at hedge funds women only make up 11% of senior management roles.
Nevertheless, Fukudome highlights that there are many ways she has seen finance support women working in her field, specifically with other women in the field.
“There are many female finance leaders willing to mentor you; [this has] helped me and my female colleagues,” Fukudome says.
For women seeking to pursue finance, Novotny stresses the importance of not taking stereotypes to heart.
“Follow your passion and don’t let any perception of the openness of females deter you from doing so,” Novotny said.
