Making Your Impact: Advancing the Economic Power of Women

By Natalie Sabia (New York City)

“Women hold up half the sky,” was the mostly widely conveyed message of Deutsche Bank’s 18th Annual Women on Wall Street Conference; a message so powerful, it resulted in mostly laughs and applaud, along with a few tears.

Over 2,000 women of all ages and all areas of financial services packed into the conference excited to hear from not only great women speakers, but also eager to hear what men in our business have to say.

Robert Rankin, Co-Head of Corporate Banking & Securities and Head of Corporate Finance at Deutsche Bank kicked off the night with an uplifting speech how global companies need women employers in order to grow their businesses. Currently, women control an astounding $12 trillion of global consumer spending. “It’s important to develop, inspire and motivate women in this business,” said Rankin. “This is a global movement.”

Changing Lives, Measuring Wealth

Jessica Jackley, Co-founder of Kiva, told an inspirational story that detailed not only how she achieved her success story, but also a story that she credits made her “wealthy.” The fact that she feels wealthy is not with respect to money, but with respect to making a difference in the lives of less fortunate people. “Resources have a story out there, it’s not just about money,” said Jackley.

Kiva is the world’s first peer to peer microlending website. It allows users to lend money globally (as low as $25) to entrepreneurs providing capital for them to start or develop their enterprise. Kiva, which was founded in 2005, has since loaned over $300 million from lenders to entrepreneurs and also gained national attention by influential people such as Bill Clinton and Oprah.

Motivated by the lives she has changed, Jessica told what most people would call an ordinary story about how she founded Kiva. The interesting part of it was she never knew where the idea exactly derived from; it was a true inspirational moment. After failing to know exactly what career she would pursue post graduate school, she stumbled upon her idea after hearing a lecture from someone who she felt a connection too. She developed a plan that would take her business skills and put them towards helping solve social problems. The mission was to focus on connecting people across the global through lending, which would help people with small expenses that equated to a huge meaning. After quitting her day job and moving across country, the rest is history.

“Founding Kiva helped boost my optimism about people; it’s a nice experience to connect with someone as an equal person,” said Jackley. “There is great opportunity out there to help; continue to reiterate your values and stay true to them.”

Yielding Global Power

Next up was a panel of very dominant women who discussed topics around advancing the global economic power of women. Women “yielding power” was the agreed upon terminology, which described women’s efforts during these especially challenging times whether it’s elections, economic turmoil, or even violence abroad.

“Now more than ever, during this year’s election, three is an importance for the woman vote,” said Michelle Bernard, CEO and President of the Bernard Center for Women, Politics & Public Policy. “Issues have changed in how people view the importance of women, it’s more refreshing.”

The topic of perception and stereotypes also offered up interesting conversation. Globally, the way we think about women in the workforce can sometimes be perceived wrong. The expansion of call centers in India among women was a perfect example. Now that call centers in India have hired so many women, did this mean to the rest of the world, women mainly belong in more service-type roles?

“Perception and stereotypes are everywhere,” said Professor Iris Bohnet of Harvard Kennedy School. “How can we learn to judge people based on their performance and not on our stereotypes?”

Closing out the night, Susan Cain, Author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, promoted the hidden talents of being an introvert, yet the challenges within the work place. She described the difference between introverts and extraverts as how a person responds to stimulation.

Despite the benefits of both, Cain dug deeper revealing that most introverts, similar to women, often experience a tougher time in a work setting mainly because they always need to conform to their surroundings. As a result, introverted people will follow what society suggests, not what they truly believe. She later offered up her advice to all the extraverts out in the world, “try and think a little bit different about being quiet,” said Cain.

It was a night full of very positive messages for women throughout the world among all different careers. It was enriching to be surrounded by so many believers and so many who have already experienced success.

Women make up 48% of the workforce today, giving them a huge presence in this world. Without women at the forefront, we wouldn’t have lived through some of the most extraordinary musicians, politicians, doctors, designers, or athletes.

A few quotes throughout the night stuck with me. “Women’s global income is greater than the GDP of China and India” was the first. But my personal favorite is, “If you can’t find a woman to promote, then you haven’t done your job.”