Bringing more gender diversity to Capital Markets
At BMO, we’ve made an ongoing commitment to supporting women at all stages of their careers. As part of that, we’ve partnered with Women in Capital Markets and the Financial Women’s Association to help break through barriers with our sponsorship of their principal returnship programs, Return to Bay Street and Back2Business.
These returnship programs help professional senior-level women re-launch their Capital Markets careers after an extended period of absence and contribute to increasing the proportion of women in leadership roles in the financial sector. They reinforce our commitment towards achieving a diverse workforce.
Both programs have traditionally been a resource for women who were looking to re-enter the workforce after parental leave, but the need for support extends beyond that. For example, Return to Bay Street has recently become popular with new Canadians. These women are candidates who have experience in major financial organizations globally but have stepped away from their roles to immigrate. When they’ve settled and are looking to enter the workforce, many are finding issues getting hired because their experience isn’t relevant to Canadian capital markets.
“The systemic and slow-to-change gender gap is a problem across the industry, and it’s one that can only be solved if we work together. Taking a lens of equity, diversity and inclusiveness on our talent strategies through programs like these is one way we’re making headway and just the start of more we can do,” says Dan Barclay, CEO and Group Head of BMO Capital Markets.
We are proud to be founding members of both of these programs that unite firms in an industry-wide approach to bringing together skilled and experienced women with organizations that are committed to diversity.