By Ray Birch
SNELLVILLE, Ga.—Are credit union job postings effectively attracting enough diverse candidates? Do credit union staff truly mirror their CU's membership, and just what kind of work needs to be done within the industry to drive greater equality for women? Five women are sharing their responses to those questions and more.
Those were some of the issues addressed during a recent African American Credit Union Coalition Commitment to Change open conversation, which was held virtually and was moderated by Jill Nowacki, president and CEO of Humanedei.
Panelists sharing their thoughts and perspectives were Diana Dykstra, president and CEO of the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues; Karen Madry, chair of the Indiana Credit Union League and CEO of Afena FCU; Caroline Willard, president and CEO of the Cornerstone League, Patty Corkery, president and CEO of the Michigan Credit Union League, and Tracie Kenyon, president and CEO of the Montana Credit Union Network.
Here is just some of what was discussed during the conversation that covered a wide variety of topics:
Madry: I am very active in going out spotting talent in the community, regardless of race, regardless sexual orientation. I make sure I share our mission, which is financial equality for all.
Corkery: The challenge I put on this group is to really make sure that they're being very thoughtful in where we are putting our job postings…getting a very broad applicant pool. And if we're traditionally just getting a lot of white people to apply, you know we are not doing what we need to do to make sure that we have a really broad applicant pool.
That's been something that we're trying to get better at (at the Michigan league). I see myself as somebody who needs to lead by example. I need to take part in conversations like this and invite my team to join in. I need to be at events in our industry in which we are broadening our minds—whether it be CU Pride events or AACUC events.
Kenyon: We have a strong commitment to DEI, and we feel like in our organization we have a commitment to leading the way. I will brag that we are 100% female staff. So, with Women's History Month (in March), that's probably a pretty good thing to brag about.
Corkery: Everybody thinks differently, depending on your background and your experience. Women think differently than men. I'm excited that we have made some great strides within credit unions to incorporate more women. But we still have more work to do, as we all recognize.
Kenyon: We should be representative of what our credit union members are, look like and act like. For that reason alone, it's really important for us to be extremely intentional about encouraging more differentiation in leadership.
Willard: Some people might think that (former Co-op Financial Services CEO) Stan Hollen was just a grumpy old dude who looks a little bit like Winston Churchill. Not somebody that every woman would have pegged as an ally. But, indeed, he was. I think theyre are 16 people who used to work for Stan who are now CEOs, and half of those are women. While I can’t claim to be that kind of an ally yet, I aspire to become that. I want to build good leaders.
Nowacki: A lot of women are saying ‘I just don't have the capacity, I don't have the time’…Are we giving consideration to where women have the capacity to get involved or engaged in the networking events or planning or the educational events? We have to give that more consideration, and have more women lending their voices to (this process). Especially if it is somebody with young kids at home. Are we giving consideration to how we're building out networking opportunities from that perspective?
Dykstra: I have been engaged with the World Council for nine years now and it is remarkable that when we get outside of our country and see what is going on around the world, it's still very male dominated in many of the countries. However, in smaller countries women are taking control. It's very exciting. They're providing remarkable services and changing people's lives every day. And that's where credit unions started, right?
So, when I go into different countries, in different areas, and you see what these women are doing and how it's changing lives, it just makes me want to never retire.
Nowacki: March (was) Women’s History Month…When we talk about women, we're not just talking about white women. We’re really being conscientious and cognizant about the intersectionality of diversity. Unfortunately, there are a lot of studies that demonstrate that today when somebody says they're comfortable adding diversity, sometimes what they mean is they're comfortable with adding women, and specifically white women, to the leadership team. They'll say we're diverse, look, we've got four women on our board, yet it may not be representative.
Willard: In being part of the CUNA board of directors, I've been really proud of the work that we've done around diversity, equity and inclusion. A few years ago we got called out. That’s when we thought that our eighth cooperative principle ought to be diversity, equity and inclusion. More recently there's been a more interesting story, and that is we've begun using diversity as one of the lenses through which we recruit board candidates.