Super fund sets out to bridge gender divide in financial services

The $64 billion super fund is launching an innovative collaboration with Girls of Impact to encourage more young women to explore a career in financial services, particularly in areas such as risk and compliance, digital and technology, and investments.

Speaking on the occasion, HESTA’s chief experience officer, Lisa Samuels, underlined the widescale financial benefits of improving gender diversity in under-represented sectors like financial services.

“We strongly believe that more diverse and inclusive teams have better decision-making, which can lead to stronger long-term performance,” Ms Samuels said, noting that over 80 per cent of HESTA members are women.

She added: “We’ve certainly seen this at HESTA, and we’re encouraging a focus on gender diversity in our industry and among our partners because we want our members to benefit from this performance edge.”

Girls of Impact CEO Kate Bushell is hopeful the collaboration with HESTA will ensure more women are appointed to decision-making roles.

Just last week, data by Chief Executive Women (CEW) found that almost two-thirds of the top 300 companies in Australia have no women at all in line management roles. 

“We want to see more girls explore underestimated careers and industries such as funds management and superannuation,” Ms Bushell said.

“This collaboration with HESTA is so crucial because we need more women in decision-making roles, especially in financial services, where investment decisions can impact people’s financial futures and the Australian economy.”

According to Ms Bushell, the collaboration will showcase the wide range of career opportunities available to women in financial services and the ability to make a real difference.

HESTA has previously engaged in similar collaborations, teaming up with Future IM/PACT to attract more diverse talent into investment teams.