Sandra Bolton \u201990 has had <\/span>what many would consider a fantastic career in finance, working at top companies and as a managing director at an asset management firm in Philadelphia. But as a woman in an industry dominated by men, the road has not always been easy.<\/p>\n In one of her first jobs out of college, where she was the only woman on an equity trading desk in New York City, her boss regularly asked her to file papers, as her male colleagues made crude, sexist comments. In another job, the head of her division made it known that he did not like the women who worked for him to wear pants. But the memory that stands out as a cautionary tale happened when Bolton was a young mother. Another working mother in the office shifted her hours to part time, becoming the first senior vice president to be granted that option. Bolton and other female colleagues were thrilled that one of their own had found a way to balance motherhood with a career in finance. Bolton, who had just had her second child, wondered if maybe she could also scale back her hours.<\/p>\n But on the next round of layoffs, the young mother was the first one out the door.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all said, \u2018So that\u2019s what happens when you go part time.\u2019 That was a lesson for every woman that was also a senior vice president at that firm,\u201d says Bolton, who is now the chief integration officer at FS Investments in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n Bolton witnessed a similar pattern over the next two decades of her professional career. The finance industry attracts women initially, but has a culture that often undermines the qualities they bring to the job, and throws up barriers that make it hard to reach the executive suite.<\/p>\n Women, particularly of color, face daunting odds in finance, according to a 2021 study by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org. Although they begin their careers on par with men, accounting for 52% of the entry-level workforce, their numbers slip with each rung they climb. According to the report, 64% of executives are white men and 23% are white women.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been pretty stalled,\u201d says Colleen Ammerman, the director of the gender initiative at Harvard Business School and co-author of the book, Glass Half-Broken: Shattering the Barriers That Still Hold Women Back at Work<\/em>. \u201cThere have been very few pockets where you see growth of women in leadership positions in the last 25 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t