As October 8th this year is Ada Lovelace Day when women involved in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) are celebrated, I thought it would be a good time to share some data about female financial modellers and their nationalities. Ada Lovelace (born 1815), the daughter of Lord Byron, collaborated with Charles Babbage on his early computer and is recognised by many as the first computer programmer.
Over 200 years later, it is interesting to see just how many women are involved in financial modelling and how that has changed over time. This information is based on the participants on my financial modelling courses, spanning 23 years, around 2,000 participants and 92 nationalities. There is a marginal upward trend. However, so far in 2019 the proportion of women has been 32%, still remarkably low. Also, bear in mind that back in 1996 33% of my attendees were female:
What I find particularly interesting is that there is a marked difference between nationalities and here I show the results for my top ten. These results will, of course, be the most reliable with the largest data sets and therefore I have arranged the information in order of frequency of nationality. Britain’s results? Not great at 22%.
What stands out for me is the Russians with 50% female financial modellers. Why is this? Is it to do with culture and coeducation? My figures match very closely with Grant Thornton’s report on gender diversity in senior management. This report showed that in 2019, 29% of senior management roles worldwide are held by women (compare to my financial modelling data of 32%). Figures are also available that show that Russia has the highest proportion of senior management positions held by women, at 47% (compare to my figure of 50%).
Is this coincidence? I don’t think so.