Technological advances are eliminating the need for bank tellers, threatening an entry point for women into the male-dominated industry which has sought to promote more females to leadership roles. While the climb remains steep, some financial companies have managed to improve the gender balance in their executive ranks.
“When you already have a workforce that has a lot of women, there are more opportunities for women’s leadership,” said Sarah Kaplan, a professor at the University of Toronto and the director of the Institute for Gender and the Economy. Duke said the movement of women into banking’s highest ranks is happening much slower than she expected, but she’s optimistic about the industry’s future, in part because banks have diversified their boards.“When you look at the bench strength in all of the banking world, the next generation of CEOs will include a number of outstanding women,” she said.
In the U.S., the number of tellers has slid 24 per cent in the 10 years through May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Canada, the number of customer-service representatives at financial institutions has fallen 27 per cent from 2010 through last year, according to Statistics Canada.In moves fairly common for the industry, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has trimmed its branch network by 9.
As teller jobs dwindle, and as those that remain include higher-value responsibilities, there’s a risk that banks will raise the educational requirements for those jobs, said Kaplan of the University of Toronto.With about 80 per cent of tellers lacking a bachelor’s degree, that threatens a pathway into the corporate world for women from less-privileged backgrounds. Teller jobs are relatively high-paying and have regular hours that allow workers to attend classes on the side.
Banks are garbage in general Get your money out of them