'Girls Who Invest' Empowers Young Women to Get Into Finance
With only 1.1% of women and minorities running the asset management industry's $71.4 trillion in assets, the field is lacking diversity. Girls Who Invest, a non-profit organization, is using empowerment to try to change that. Seema Hingorani, Founder of Girls Who Invest, joined us at the New York Stock Exchange to share why she feels it is important to encourage young women to pursue careers in asset management.
Girls Who Invest is working towards the goal of getting 30% of investable assets managed by women by 2030. Hingorani says the lack of diversity is a pipeline problem. She adds that young women don’t even know about the industry and how impactful and rewarding it can be. Hingorani said there has been a cloud over the industry since the 2008 financial crisis. To reach the next generation of women, Girls Who Invest designed a 10-week summer program for college students.
President Trump's immigration policies have put up a roadblock to Girls Who Invest's international growth, Hingorani says. Girls Who Invest accepted fewer international students in 2017 than last year because several women struggled to obtain work visas. She says the policies hurt the talent pool because talented women aren’t getting interviews due to the fact they don’t have visas.
President Biden announced a ban on Russian oil and natural gas imports to the U.S. in response to its invasion of Ukraine, a move he warned could lead to an even greater surge in gas prices. The ban is prompting a conversation about the current oil production levels in the U.S. and whether or not the industry can ramp up production to soften the blow to American families at the gas pump. Clark Williams-Derry, Energy Finance Analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, breaks down the state of the U.S. oil industry and how the ban might impact production levels here at home.
PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Starbucks are the latest American food brands to have halted business operations in Russia after having faced scrutiny and criticism for originally failing to do so amid the country's invasion of Ukraine.
As Russia intensifies its war on Ukraine, President Biden announced a ban on oil imported from the aggressor nation. Critics of Russia have said this would be the best way to force Putin to pull back, but curbs on Russian oil exports are expected to send already skyrocketing oil and gas prices even higher, further impacting consumers, businesses, financial markets, and the global economy. Leslie Beyer, CEO of the Energy Workforce and Technology Council, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss. "It's certainly going to increase pricing, but it is the right thing to do," she said. "The industry itself has already pulled out of the significant portion of its operations in Russia."
As airlines recover from COVID-19 and the industry becomes more competitive than ever, low-fare carrier Breeze Airlines is offering 35 new routes and reduced prices for its first-class experiences. CEO David Neeleman joined Cheddar News to talk about the rollout of services amid plenty of headwinds including high fuel costs. "We can limit a lot of costs because we're a technology company that happens to fly airplanes," he noted.
Despite women as a whole being among the groups most impacted by pandemic job losses, homesharing platform Airbnb reported that women hosts brought in $12 billion in revenue last year. Catherine Powell, Airbnb's global head of hosting, joined Cheddar News to discuss how women hosting has become a huge asset for the company. "Last year 21 percent more women joined the platform than men," she said. "So they are joining the platform. They are being successful. They're more super hosts, and they're doing incredibly well."
