What Women in Finance Can Learn From the Movie 'Equity'
The new movie 'Equity,' tackles female ambition on the world of finance, where women are still woefully outnumbered by men. We traveled to a gathering known as Camp Kotok in rural Maine, and sat down with a few women in finance to try to figure out why. 'We get them through the door. It's very difficult to keep them through the middle part of their career,' said Marlene Puffer, partner at Alignvest Investment Management. 'My personal bias is I think women have a relatively low tolerance for work environments that they don't feel are positive and encouraging.' Puffer admitted it's 'still a boy's club,' although she was quick to add there's been much improvement over the years. 'The explicit stuff we saw twenty years ago is gone. But in some ways it's kind of shoved to the background, it's just not as obvious. It still goes on.' Another woman we spoke with said she was hired at a financial firm simply because she was a woman. 'When I was hired in 1976 I don't mind telling you the only reason I was allowed to take the exam to become registered was because of EEOC laws in the late 1970s. It's incredible we're still talking about diversity now,' said Ronnie Lapinsky Sax, who works as a senior portfolio management director at Morgan Stanley. But she also admits for some women, bravery might be lacking. 'I believe it's all a question of confidence. Maybe we weren't taught to be confident. But I believe that over time as women have started to become more confident, they have achieved greater successes and they certainly have grown into their roles. I would be an example of that.' TheStreet's Rhonda Schaffler has details from Grand Lake Stream, Maine.
