24 | A ROADMAP TO GENDER PARITY AT ALL CAREER STAGES The path to parity The goal to achieve parity in financial services is ambitious. However our interviews with fe- male senior executives and deep research demonstrate there is indeed a road to the top, and clear steps that can be taken to pave the way for more women to get there. Moving toward gender parity at the top will require corporate leaders—both male and fe- male—to view gender equality as a strategic priority, and one that is integrated into the organization’s day-to-day work. As Marianne Lake observes, “If we believe that investing in women is critical to the company’s success, we have to think about it constantly. It’s one di- mension of running a successful business. We can have targets around gender diversity—and we should measure them—but making it a priority comes down to leadership and culture.” Beverly Anderson echoes this sentiment and believes that change will come when diversity becomes a universal objective: “The customer base has to demand diversity; the sharehold- ers, everybody has to decide that this is important. We all talk an interesting game around diversity, particularly gender, but without full support it just doesn’t translate into the senior levels,” she says. The investment and commitment yields dividends—in terms of talent, performance, and val- ues. And the urgency to accelerate gender diversity in financial services is increasing as the customer base becomes increasingly diverse. Many believe the competitive marketplace ulti- mately will demand diversity from financial services providers—especially as women increas- ingly take the financial reins of their households. According to Margo Cook, “What will drive change in our industry is the amount of wealth that will continue to transition to women over the next several years as baby boomers age. More women will control assets because of their longer life spans. We can’t stay, let alone thrive, in the business if we’re not shifting how we talk to women. It’s a business case: financial services companies need to change their or- ganization’s landscape to attract and retain their clients’ wealth.” Success will require unwavering commitment from all leaders in financial services to move to- ward parity. As Marianne Lake concludes, “It’s about blocking and tackling. There’s no silver bullet; this is going to be a long game.”