Apparently I am an unusual IR person. And that isn’t because of some of the dynamic and interesting jobs and assignments I have had – it is because as long as I have been in investor relations, I have always headed up the function. I will admit, when I first headed the IR function, the discipline was nascent and I was naïve and inexperienced. I hope I have learned a lot since then.
Having said that, though, having a female head of IR never struck me as odd. And I never took much time thinking about it until this past year. Sure, I have witnessed a predominantly male C-suite for my entire career, as well as boards being predominantly male. This is changing slowly but surely.
The changes are happening for a few reasons including that the first generation of women who have had the opportunity to work toward senior executive level are coming of age, there is a real focus on mentoring and leading women in the workplace, and investors are increasingly looking at diversity – and not just gender diversity – as a key metric to measure companies on.
Still, the statistics are a bit depressing. IR Magazine notes in its recent research that just 30 percent of the FTSE 100, 20 percent of the S&P 100 and 30 percent of the TSX are headed by women, despite women holding 49 percent of IR roles. And the research further shows that women are earning less than their male counterparts.
These stats are not unusual, and in many companies corporate functions like finance, legal, human resources, communications, and so on have in some cases a higher percentage of women than men, but women still do not gain the top job. So why is it that women perennially come up short?
I think we could all throw up a myriad reasons why, and I have many theories on this. What I do know, however, is that this is the responsibility of both men and women, and the responsibility for all of us in the investor relations community to actively think about, engage in and change.
With this in mind, we have started a ‘Women in IR’ movement at IR Magazine, and I am fortunate enough to be a part of it.
Yesterday saw the first Women in IR event in London with more to follow over the coming weeks in New York, San Francisco and Toronto. I encourage all members of the IR community and broader capital markets community – both men and women – to attend these events. I look forward to seeing a healthy turnout at the Women in IR event in Toronto, and I trust we will see equally strong turnout in the other cities.
These events will be the first in a series that will be part of the initiative for change. We can’t sit on the sidelines and expect change: we must make it.
Janet Craig is a senior IR executive based in Toronto
