The Australian superannuation industry has provided career opportunities for women like no other. The traditional notion of a glass ceiling for women in finance is not reflected by Australia's pension industry.
Female chief executives of industry super funds include Ann Byrne of Unisuper, Anne-Marie Corboy of HESTA, Michelle Dolin of the Government Employees Super Fund, Julie Lander of Care Super, Frances Magill of Statewide Superannuation Trust, Leeanne Turner of AV Super and Rosemary Vilgan, chair of QSuper.
Collectively they head organisations that manage more than $60 billion in Australian retirement savings.
Female representation is not just confined to the business of superannuation. Women also spearhead some of the industry's key bodies, including Susan Ryan, who is president of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees, Philippa Smith, who is chief executive of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA), Vilgan, who is chair of ASFA, and Fiona Reynolds from the Conference of Major Superannuation Funds of Australia (CMSF).
Yet if you were to look at superannuation's counterparts in industries such as funds management or investment banking you would not come near to finding the same level of female representation.
Ryan says this is because the superannuation industry in Australia is a relatively new sector. She dates its beginnings to the introduction of the superannuation guarantee levy in 1992 - a time when more and more women were coming out of higher education.
"As super grew into a coherent sector, its demand for skilled people coincided with many women leaving universities. At the same time, the industry needed people with a talent in marketing, advertising, finance and management expertise," she says.
Vilgan agrees. "The Australian super industry is a relatively new industry. It is also a sector that is still experiencing growth and constantly looking for people," she says.
Ryan attributes the high number of women in superannuation to Australia's trade union movement, in particular with the establishment of industry super funds.
"The culture of trade unions is all about the collective good. Similarly with super funds it's about providing retirement savings to those on low incomes. These sorts of beliefs supported the growth of women in the industry. You will find many women who moved to senior jobs within these super funds were previously union officials," she says.
AustralianSuper director Elana Rubin, former Cbus chief executive Helen Hewitt and UniSuper fund trustee Diana Olsberg were all once union representatives.
What glass ceiling?
The absence of a glass ceiling was a consistent theme during interviews for this article, as was the diverse backgrounds of the women involved.
"There are no barriers to career progression in the super industry. It is an industry that is constantly changing. It doesn't matter whether you are male or female, you just need that level of commitment," Byrne says.
Byrne began her career in superannuation when she applied for a job as chief executive of industry fund the Superannuation Trust of Australia (STA), which last year merged with the Australian Retirement Fund to form AustralianSuper.
"Someone just suggested I apply for a job as head of STA and I did. I think this type of approach is similar to what happens to most women in the industry," she says.
Byrne began her career as a schoolteacher. She says it is her ability to adapt to change that has allowed her to swap career three times, from teacher to workplace consultant and finally to industry superannuation fund chief.
She is now at UniSuper and oversaw the merger between the Superannuation Scheme for Australian Universities and the Tertiary Education Superannuation Scheme to form the $21 billion fund in 2000.
Sue Merriman is head of technical services at BT Financial Group and did not see any barriers to her career development. Like Byrne, Merriman also began her career as teacher.
She says after 20 years of teaching she needed a change, but it took her nine months to secure a job outside teaching.
"A lot of employers back then didn't recognise the transferable skills in teaching. I was 43, female and a teacher and that seemed to be the worst possible thing to be," she says.
Her first job in the industry was a training job at National Mutual, which she admits to hating. Her expertise was self-taught, especially when she moved into the technical area of the organisation. "I don't know why they took me on. I knew nothing. They just gave me a desk, a phone and a shelf of legal books," she said.
Today she manages a team of seven and provides technical information to the company's customer service team and to BT Financial Group's financial planning clients.
Part-time generation
The next generation of women in super have few worries when it comes to the potential existence of a glass ceiling. They inhabit a more flexible world to their predecessors, where careers can be balanced with home life - but only if you work at it.
Kate McCallum, who is head of offer and design for Westpac Financial Planning and in her thirties, began her career with State Street in 1994. After six years with the company, McCallum moved to Commonwealth Bank of Australia where she ran its superannuation master trust after the Colonial First State integration.
She is now a senior member of Westpac Financial Planning's advice division and is in charge of a team of 10.
McCallum says she did not find a glass ceiling in any of the firms she worked in. "It may exist in other places but it certainly wasn't present in any of the companies I worked in," she says.
Similarly, Unisuper general manager of member and employer services Val Abbott, 41, says the super industry is an area where women can easily progress.
She says because the industry is a young sector, it is an environment that has allowed the idea of flexible working hours to foster, further attracting women to it.
Abbott oversees a team of 50, eight to 10 of which work on a part-time basis.
"We did not want to lose the experience and expertise of our staff. It also allowed us to develop the next tier of senior staff as they step up to fill the gap left from our part-time staff," she says.
Although she works full-time, she says balancing work and family still has its challenges. "It's always going to be an issue for women," she says.
McCallum says Westpac is also a flexible working environment, with four out of 10 of her senior staff members working part-time hours.
"People can work part-time but you need to make it work. You have to structure a role that is achievable in the hours set. Where we get into trouble is when we make the full-time job part-time," she says.
Asset management - a man's world?
Women might have broken through into the world of superannuation, but fund management remains a male-dominated industry, especially at the senior level.
"We women are few and far between," Macquarie Funds Management division director Genevieve Rainey says.
Rainey's introduction into the funds management sector was more conventional, starting with Macquarie 10 years ago as a graduate trainee.
"Ten years back I was one of only two women in the team. Today our team is half female, although I do think this still makes us different to the norm out there," she says.
Rainey, who co-manages the $7 billion large cap equities portfolio for Macquarie Bank, also played a pivotal part in developing the firm's high conviction fund.
She says the small number of women in the industry is unsurprising due to its traditional roots. "Finance in general was traditionally the domain of men, but I think going forward the number of women will increase," she says.
The funds management industry requires commitment and it can often be difficult to balance work and home life, she says.
"Macquarie is my life. Ask anyone here and they will say the same," she says.
Marianne Feeley, who is responsible for the Asia Pacific manager research team for consultant Mercer, believes women in any industry are always a minority but it differs from country to country.
Feeley, who has worked in Chicago and London, says there are more women in the finance industry in the United States and European markets compared to Australia.
She heads a team of 10 people, four of which are women, and says career progression is based on what you make of the opportunities. She says Mercer was willing to give her those opportunities.
Merriman, however, says there is more to life than work and the idea of glass ceilings is old fashioned. "A lot of women don't actually want to be on top. We have different priorities. Women want a more balanced life. I am happy with the job I have got," she says.
