Women and Diversity: Why the Conversation Must Continue in Financial Services

The financial advising professions are concerned that not only will there be insufficient talent in the workforce to replace those professionals that will soon retire and to meet the expected growth in advisors over the next decade, but the profession is also lacking in diversity. This paper focuses on The University of Akron’s Women and Diversity Symposium, which is the result of the alignment of industry initiatives to increase the number of women and people of diverse backgrounds in the financial services industry. The secondary goal is to increase the number of undergraduate students choosing financial planning as a degree. Through an analysis of surveys completed by attendees at the symposium, this research has shown that the symposium improved the impression of the financial services industry among those that attended.