By Ray Birch
MADISON, Wis.—While more women are taking leadership roles in credit unions and progress is being made, the director of the Global Women’s Leadership Network (GWLN) is looking forward to the day when no one will be talking about the statistics at all.
“The percentage of women in leadership roles within credit unions in the U.S. has increased over the last few years, but we still have work to do,” said Eleni Giakoumopoulos. “And I'm going to repeat that—we still need to make a concerted, collective effort to keep changing those numbers so that one day we are not talking about changing the numbers, as the numbers will be where they should. That is very important.”
Giakoumopoulos pointed out the percentage of women CEOs in credit unions worldwide is 31%.
In Europe, that percentage is at 66%, and in North America we're at 42%,” she explained.
“We're talking about women's advancement, right? At GWLN our job is not to make every woman a CEO. Our job is to make sure we give individuals the tools and resources that they need to advance to leadership roles. And that doesn't always mean the CEO’s role. That might mean being the best vice president of marketing, or the best chief information officer. It might be a variety of things. I want to make sure that people understand that.”
With Women's History Month being celebrated in March, CUToday.info spoke with Giakoumopoulos about issues facing women in credit unions.
“Looking at the World Council of Credit Unions statistical report, the percentage of female credit union board members worldwide is 40%,” she said, explaining the increase in the percentage of female directors is very important to the progress of women in CUs. “In North America, we're at 55%. So, I would say there is an improvement on the board level. But it isn't just about bringing a female onto the board. You need to bring the best qualified candidate to the board. If you want to really bring diversity of thought, and you want to bring true thought leadership to your organization, diversity is very important.”
Some Are Stepping Up, But…
One factor driving up the percentage of women in credit union leadership is more women are asking for larger roles, according to Giakoumopoulos . Yet at the same time, not enough women are taking the initiative, she added.
“I’m seeing more and more women are stepping up and asking, because they are seeing that others are doing it. And that's a good thing,” Giakoumopoulos told CUToday.info. “However, there are still too many women who do not feel that same level of comfort or security with raising their hand and stepping up.”
In addition to the lack of confidence some women feel, Giakoumopoulos said there is an issue of knowing where to turn, as well.
“I hear women say, ‘I want to get involved, but how do I get involved?’ I tell them you just took the first step. You raised your hand,” Giakoumopoulos said.
An Issue That Can’t Be Ignored
One issue that can’t be ignored, according to Giakoumopoulos, is there remains too many credit union CEOs who are older, white males.
“We still have a lot of leaders who are older and white in the U.S. and in some parts of the world,” Giakoumopoulos said. “They are seasoned professionals who have been working in credit union land for more than 20 plus years. It's great to see them and they bring a lot to the table. But many of them are not offering the same opportunities for some women.”
And something else needs to occur, too, said Giakoumopoulos.
“We need to do a better job of advocating for other women,” she said. “But sometimes we're just not good at advocating for ourselves.”
The Issue of Work/Life Balance
Outside of getting more women into leadership roles, Giakoumopoulos said a big challenge for women in credit unions--and for all women in the workplace--is work/life balance.
“The family care. The unpaid family care. Some of these issues are standard across the board globally,” Giakoumopoulos explained. “But some things, some issues, differ due to cultural sensitivities. You're dealing with tradition. So, things can be very different for a woman in Uganda who is not thinking about how she is going to advance to become a CEO. Not many of them are, and I know that is a general statement. You can’t compare the issues facing those women to females in Colorado. For example, in Africa women cannot open a bank account if they don't have their spouse sign off for them. OK, this is 2023…”
Eleni Giakoumopoulos
Giakoumopoulos said the Global Women’s Leadership Network is also focused on financial inclusion on a broader scale.
“So, how do we provide better types of products and services for women in our communities. How are we providing gender friendly, or gender inclusive, loan products? What types of things are we doing on that level?” she asked. “Some countries around the globe are doing a little better there (than the U.S.). We had a project in Senegal that focused specifically on designing financial services products for women entrepreneurs. I think that would be a tremendous thing if we could see that on a much broader scale, especially in the U.S., because there are still a lot of underrepresented communities.”
Additional Initiatives
Giakoumopoulos also spoke to a a number of other efforts GWLN in championing this year, including:
- “We will continue to grow our learning opportunities, our scholarship opportunities…This year we're offering two of those options. We should be announcing them soon.”
- “We want to provide more learning offerings to our international audience, that is a big effort for us this year.”
- “Next year, GWLN turns 15, and we are preparing for that. It is very exciting to see how the network initially began and how the network has grown in size, with respect to the number of individuals who have engaged both on an international level and a domestic level.”
- “We’re obviously continuing to grow our sister societies. I just came back from the U.K. where we relaunched a U.K. sister society.”
- “We’re going to Brazil and will be engaging with all of our sister societies there and participating in an event called a Super Summit, which is going to combine activities for women and the Emerging Leaders program.”
More Than A One-Month Thing
Giakoumopoulos said Women’s History Month spotlights the accomplishment of women and is a good time to discuss the advancement of females in the workforce.
“But it shouldn't be about Women's History Month,” she said. “It shouldn't be about a month in a year. I say this all the time. It is about recognizing and celebrating women all year round. It isn't about International Women's Day—one day a year where we pick up the team and we take photos. It is about each and every day and giving women more opportunities.”