This article has been written in collaboration with Tram Anh Nguyen, Co-Founder of CFTE and industry fellow at Imperial Business School, Board Advisor RiseUp Europe.
According to a Deloitte report, FinTech has a bigger gender problem than it realises. This doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise, FinTech is a marriage between two of the arguably least gender-diverse industries. Statistics within the industry show that only 30% of the FinTech workforce is female and a mere 17% of senior FinTech roles are held by women. In addition, female founders make up 5% of FinTech companies.
Women in FinTech and gender diversity at the workforce is a topic extremely integral to CFTE. Therefore, we have prepared a short informal article to discuss further on this.
The important thing about FinTech is that it can only thrive with a specialised workforce. In order for that to happen, it is imperative for diversity to exist. Yes, while this also refers to diversity within the talent pool included in FinTech—lawyers, marketers, technologists and financial professionals—we must also not forget about gender diversity. And while Finance and Technology as respective sectors struggle to include diversity, the very idea of FinTech—flexible, borderless and limitless—should indicate a clear rebellion. If anything FinTech, a disruptive force promoting equality, should embrace and empower diversity.
This is exactly where education and empowerment intersect, a place where CFTE seeks to carve its niche. “One of CFTE’s mission is also to ensure that underrepresented individuals are able to leverage access to education, effectively ensuring that they are able to adapt and thrive in the rapidly changing FinTech industry. And it is through continuous education that women are able to empower themselves to break the glass ceiling. As of last year, 45% of our alumni were women” Tram Anh, Co-Founder CFTE, shares.
CFTE also seeks to provide equal representation for all throughout the education programmes curated, namely, AI in Finance, FinTech Foundation, and Extrapreneurship. By ensuring that gender diversity is ‘alive and kicking’ amongst the pool of industry experts hired, CFTE is also able to provide a platform for the women leaders in FinTech to be heard.
Further, our partnership established with 100 Women in Finance enables us to uplift women with the necessary knowledge, skills, confidence and network. In fact, Celine Bourban, our alumna and former participant of ‘100 Women in Finance’ is a wonderful example showcasing the extent to which education can empower an individual’s digital transformation journey.
CFTE is also happy to announce that Tram Anh Nguyen, co-founder of CFTE and was listed on Women in Fintech Powerlist 2020 and has just recently joined the board of RiseUp2020 in Europe, a global programme designed to foster female leadership through actionable skills, tools and mentorship across the FinTech ecosystem. This comes as a direct continuation of her previously serving as a contributor to the initiative. Ronit Ghose, Global Head of Research at Citi and CFTE’s Board Member, is also on the advisory board members list, actively supporting gender diversity in FinTech. Both achievements highlight and solidify CFTE’s vision of promoting financial inclusion for women.
Gender diversity remains a priority on our education agenda and we are looking forward to future initiatives to foster and promote equality in FinTech worldwide.
To all our readers: Tram Anh will be speaking during Re:Work Women in FinTech summit in London on the 31st of March 2020. Her discussion will include ‘Creating leaders in AI in Finance”, all of our community members are welcome.
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