MADISON, Wis.–The Wisconsin Credit Union League said it is celebrating the “strong representation” of women leaders in the credit union community both in Wisconsin and nationwide during March, which is Women’s History Month.
Citing CUNA data, the league noted that more than half of credit union CEOS are women. In Wisconsin, 47% of Wisconsin’s credit unions are run by women. A woman is almost three times more likely to be a CEO of a credit union than a bank, and national data shows that only 4.5% of bank CEOs are women, the league said, adding that twice as many women serve on credit union boards than banks.
“The cooperative principles that power credit unions compel us to embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion—and not just when it comes to our members,” said President and CEO Brett Thompson. “While there is still much work to be done, we know that our movement is made stronger by having leadership that better reflects our world. We are proud of the accomplishments of all women in the industry and will continue to support and elevate them.”
According to the league, credit unions continue to foster the development of women leaders through deepened succession plans, growth assignments, and an emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion training.
The league noted DEI became CUNA’s eighth cooperative principle in 2019, with the WCUL board passing a DEI resolution shortly thereafter.
More Work to Do
But credit unions still have work to do in order to create an equal representation of women leaders across credit unions of all asset sizes, according to a league statement.
“Women need to support other women. You don’t need the perfect resume,” said Kim Sponem, president & CEO of the $4.8 billion Summit Credit Union in Madison. “You don’t need the perfect background. You need confidence that you can do the job well and make a difference.”
The Wisconsin league said in its statement it is also committed to supporting leadership development by providing various educational and networking opportunities to women in credit unions.
“In just a couple weeks we’ll be holding our annual Women’s Leadership Summit, which will be focused on mental health and financial well-being as well as winning credibility,” said WCUL VP of Professional Development Jennifer Esser. “We are also involved in the Global Women’s Leadership Network and are planning to ramp up our engagement this year.”
Don’t Forget to Check the Spam Folder!
Don’t forget to check your Spam/Junk email folder if you didn’t receive your free, popular and daily CUToday.info news headlines on Monday.
And if you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time.
CUToday.info has received very positive response from readers following the move to an improved provider of the daily headlines, but many also noted they did need to go to their Spam/Junk folder and need to mark it as safe.
The new email solution has not only improved every reader’s delivery experience, but it also features a fresh, new format that is easy to read, especially on mobile devices.
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com.