Women in Finance (WIF) is a new club on campus dedicated to connecting and exposing female-identifying students to careers in financial services, economics and consulting. Founded in Jan. 2022, the club already has over sixty members and is the first of its kind on Hamilton campus in recent years. Catherine McFarland ’22 and Sabrina Turner ’24 are WIF’s co-founders.
The idea came after McFarland and Turner, both alumnae of the Sapere Aude Consortium in 2020 and 2021 respectively, were discussing their experiences in the program. The Sapere Aude Consortium is a nonprofit research organization that provides internships for first generation college students and children of public servants to gain exposure to the financial services industry. It culminates in participants writing a research paper. Turner explained that the internship “is about six weeks long. They bring in professionals from different firms to come and talk about different career paths within finance to learn more about the industry broadly. Then, you work together with four other college students from universities across the country to write a research paper on a recent trend in the investment or wealth management industry.”
McFarland, an Economics major, wrote a paper during the Summer 2020 titled “Women and Wealth: The Disconnect” that addressed the lack of women in wealth management. Turner, a Public Policy major, wrote a paper titled “ESG Investing: A Call for Standardization” that examines the topic of greenwashing. Through their research and networking, McFarland and Turner learned more about the lack of female representation in the financial services industry. In addition, Sapere Aude Consortium founder Joseph Craven is a huge advocate for women pursuing finance careers, and instilled the idea of “paying it forward” to program participants. With this in mind, Turner and McFarland decided to translate their positive experience to help other young women at Hamilton gain exposure to the industry.
The club has hit the ground running with multiple events connecting students to alumnae and peers. On Tuesday, April 12, the club co-sponsored a Women in Finance alumni panel with the Career Center Finance and Consulting Connect Team. Lisa Yang ’17, Vice President at Citi Wealth Management; Meghan Grip ’19, Analyst at Goldman Sachs; Ellie Riehle ’20, Global Markets Analyst at Goldman Sachs and Julia McCusker ’20, Analyst at KBW Investment Banking, shared their experience and advice to members over Zoom.
On Wednesday, April 13, WIF hosted an event to learn more about institutional equity sales from Lona Sniderman ’19. The intention of these panels was to show Hamilton students what resources they have at their disposable, and to encourage usage of the network of Hamilton alumnae in finance. Turner noted that organizing an on-campus network for women is important to help them feel more comfortable amongst the established male-dominated networks.
Even though one does not need to be an economics major to work in the financial sector, Turner points out that confidence in economic topics is helpful. Currently at Hamilton, as well as at most other academic institutions, women are underrepresented in economics departments. Thus, one of the club’s current initiatives is to increase the number of women in Hamilton’s Economics Department. The club’s advisor, Economics Department Chair, Professor of Economics and Henry Platt Bristol Professor of Public Policy Ann Owen, explained that one of the reasons behind the smaller percentage of female economics majors is that women are much more easily discouraged by lower grades, especially in introductory courses. In response, Hamilton has made changes to try to retain more female concentrators such as maintaining gender balance among economics professors and introducing classes like Economics 166, for which the Economics Department received one of Insight into Diversity’s 2021 Inspiring Program in STEM Awards. Recently, WIF partnered with the Economics Department to host a Women in Economics mixer in FoJo South with the goal of building connections amongst female students and female faculty in a more informal way. Over fifty female economics students attended this event. Turner wants to further this effort of retaining women in economics by creating study sessions through their clubs to allow students to support each other academically.
Even beyond academics, Turner remarked how intimidating finance was when she first began her internship because of excessive jargon and high expectations to know everything. However, she claimed that by sticking with the internship, one will start to understand more of what one hears. McFarland noted that she wished she understood how receptive and welcoming the Hamilton alumni network was sooner, particularly the female alumnae. She suggested that students reach out sooner rather than later because the best way to demystify the industry is to hear from people who work in it.
Next week, on April 18 at 7:00 p.m., WIF will be hosting a panel of their former mentors at Sapere Aude Consortium. They will provide members with a broad overview of the financial services industry and break down sectors like wealth management, investment banking and asset management. In addition, their mentors (three of which are women) will share more about their experiences in the industry and provide advice to students. McFarland suggested that “anyone who is interested should attend. It is a low-stakes way to learn more about finance, especially from some very successful women!”
McFarland and Turner hope that their foundation for WIF will thrive after they graduate this spring and study abroad during the 2022–2023 year respectively.
