The Most Powerful Women in Banking

A report on women in the financial services industry illuminates some of the ways gender is still a factor holding them back. One problem is unstated ideas about qualities for success, which have been decided over decades by men. It seems that gender diversity initiatives aren't helping, but a couple of headhunters have some suggestions for how banks can do better and so does Debbie Matz. "Equity" screenwriter Amy Fox talks about what she learned from women on Wall Street, and the film is set to become the basis of a new ABC television series.

The last movie about female executives on Wall Street was "Working Girl" in 1983. The end of the movie left the audience feeling euphoric. But in creating the movie "Equity," we set out to explore — as authentically as possible — the experiences women have in this field, and the truths that we encountered in our interviews were not pretty.

Mary Mack is beginning damage control as she overhauls Wells' sales culture; Dorothy Savarese talks diversity of bank sizes as she becomes chairman of the ABA; and Elizabeth Warren implores the president to demote Mary Jo White. Also, industry manbassadors talk work-life balance and the importance of flexibility for women as Visa's CEO resigns to devote more time to family. And a couple of small activist firms are taking on gender bias at the world's largest companies.

Rather than continuing to invest in inclusion initiatives that fail to drive diversity, banks should embrace these three programs instead.

Many have linked the gender gap in financial services to the difficulties in balancing work pressures with family demands. To help address this, paid family leave should be compulsory in the industry.