Female leaders in fintech often find themselves to be the only woman in a room. Miriam Sheril, who leads the U.S. product team for London-based payment technology firm Form3, is even more in the minority.
"There are not many other women in the room who are also Orthodox Jews," she said.
Women in the financial industry face myriad challenges, from
Sheril received her Bachelor of Science in computational mathematics and a master's in information systems. She spent 15 years in the Federal Reserve System, most recently building and designing
"I wasn't into payments originally, just technology," she said. "Once I was at the Fed I became a certifiable payments geek."
In an interview, she talks about how she has overcome misconceptions about the role Orthodox Jewish women play in the corporate world both inside and outside of her community, how she
How often do you encounter other Orthodox Jews in fintech or at the Federal Reserve?
MIRIAM SHERIL: There were Orthodox Jewish women working at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, although not tons. It's hard. Culturally we get married young and have kids young, and large families are a usual thing. The default is no matter what, pregnancy is nine months and maternity leave [takes] months. At the end of the day, the numbers don't add up. If you have six kids, you're pregnant six times and take six maternity leaves. Having a career and going into corporate America isn't easy for a woman in my world, although I have lots of friends who do it. In the New York Fed, technology specifically is a space where women in my community go.
Why do you think that is?
In technology there has been more opportunity for schooling that is flexible. You can get a computer science degree at night. Especially when I joined Form3, I heard how there are so few women in technology. Whereas for our community, if women are going into corporate America, they often start in technology.
What does it mean to frequently be the only Orthodox Jewish woman in the room?
It means you have to put it out there upfront and push it forward. I'm a blabbermouth and share things all the time. Orthodox Jewish women cover their hair when they get married, so wearing a wig is a big thing. There are situations where I'll be like, "Oh shoot, I need to go adjust my wig, I'll be right back," and people are like, "You what?!" I've learned through the years to be mindful and that I shouldn't assume everyone knows.
In New York, lots of people knew about the customs. But when I was working with people in [other cities] on FedNow, all of a sudden I noticed this shift — they've heard of Judaism but what exactly is kosher? You need an actual certificate, I thought it was just that you can't eat pig? At Form3 the acceptance and conversations are so open but there is much less awareness. I'm lucky that I've never had a negative reaction. I've always gotten, "Wow, that's really interesting."
I take off all the Jewish holidays. At the New York Fed, everyone knows about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the big ones. Then I'm taking off for the holiday of Sukkot, which nobody knows about, and there are two parts to it. There is a lot of explaining. When I was applying to Form3 and knew they were going to make an offer, I realized I shouldn't assume they know I have to log off early on Friday for the Sabbath in the winter. The culture at Form3 is wonderful. A lot of people ask, "Are you okay with questions?" They're super curious.
What kind of false viewpoints have you corrected over your career?
I need to be mindful of food and [explain] that kosher is not the same as vegetarian. I have run into questions like, "You're an Orthodox Jewish woman and you're allowed to work?" That tends to be where I get the most vocal — yes, we're allowed to work, and many women do work. Once someone said, "Don't you need to have more kids?" like it was a requirement. I was like, no, that's not how it works. The woman gets to say if she wants to have more kids.
You've had very positive reactions. What can other people do to increase their chances of the same?
Part of it might have to do with how you share things. I'm not self-conscious about being religious. I was raised in an intellectual family, which makes me very open to intellectual conversations. It's also OK to say, that's not a topic I'm comfortable discussing.
Was it hard to get accommodations at the Fed?
I've always had a ton of accommodation at work. When the Fed offered me a job, the first thing I talked about was, what kind of remote options do you offer? Back then there was no working full-time remote. But I had a 10-month-old as an intern. I usually went in three days a week and worked from home two days a week.
The FedNow program was so busy and I was working really long hours, I had to be good about it. I would push things to the last minute on Fridays. I had to be stronger on my own to be like, you don't need to be on that call, it'll get handled, or it won't and you'll deal with it on Sunday.
Where I have struggled with accommodation is in my community. My husband and I send our kids to private Jewish schools and I've always noticed this trend of assuming the mothers are home. But I was naive in thinking that was only in my world. All the women I've talked to, Jewish or not, have the same issue. The world still does not accommodate the fact that both parents could be working full-time jobs.
To give my husband credit, he has always had to partner with me, and he's always wanted to. There are not many men in my community who are used to a woman [working full-time]. It's been interesting for us to navigate. Right now my husband does morning carpool every day because I start early. Most of the husbands don't do any carpool.
How have you mentored women in your community about juggling work and home obligations?
It happened naturally. As I moved into my current community in Clifton, New Jersey, people will say, my daughter is about to start at Bloomberg, can she chat with you? I talk to them about how I have made it work. Another thing I mentor people to do is to interview every two years no matter what. You should know if you're marketable and what your salary offers might be. Every two years I used to update my resume and interview to see what was out there. In the first eight to nine years of my career I always got a higher offer salary-wise but I never got the flexibility of a remote schedule to match. With [three kids] I didn't want to risk losing that. Now it is a different conversation.
How have you changed the habit of underselling yourself?
I would constantly say in a meeting, "This is probably a stupid question" or "I'm so sorry, but can I just ask you…." But no men would say that, even when they were saying something stupid. I realized we were enabling this idea of, maybe I'm not as much of a thought leader as the man sitting next to me. I noticed myself doing it on FedNow — where I wrote the requirements — until a woman pinged me to say, you realize everyone in this room knows you know this better than all of us. I literally put a sticky note on my computer to remind myself when I was in meetings, Don't say I'm sorry, don't say "this is stupid." Now it's out of my lingo.
