How mentorship, sponsorship can elevate women in finance

Hadiza Djataou saw finance as the place where all her interests intersected. Starting her career in Paris, she saw how finance met at the confluence of maths, economics, policy, and people. Her first project encapsulated those intersections perfectly: working on the privatization and construction of telecom services in Morocco. She saw, in this profession, a chance to turn all those interests into a career with real impact. Djataou is currently VP, Head of Macro, and Portfolio Manager on the Mackenzie Investments Fixed Income team. She specializes in global fixed income mandates, with a particular focus on ESG and supranational bond strategies. Getting to that point, though, was not without its challenges.

Djataou explained how she took her journey from pricing North African, telecoms through equity management in Paris, into fixed income, and eventually to Canada. All that happening while she became a mother, navigated the great financial crisis, and established herself and her family in a new country. She highlights the role that mentors and sponsors have played in her career journey and emphasized the need for more mentorship and sponsorship to help more women achieve as financial professionals.

“We moved to Canada seven years ago... and I spent a year finding a job. I was struck by the differences in the workplace between Europe and Canada. I had to somewhat readjust to a different communication style and the fact that I didn’t have Canadian experience,” Djataou says. “I told them, ‘I worked at AXA, they manage trillions in global assets, I was a senior PM for 10 years, how are my skills not relevant?’ That’s where mentorship made a difference, because I met people here who paved the way for me, who were also global managers.

“That’s how I joined Mackenzie. I met someone, at a Starbucks of all places, and when they discovered I was a global PM, they said they knew someone looking for a fixed income specialist. When they sent me the job posting in an email, I realized I had seen it a few days prior and thought I would never be the right candidate. I had decided not to put myself out there for this job, but it came back to me through a different channel, and a month later I was starting at the AVP level at Mackenzie.”

As a new immigrant on a 12-month job hunt, Djataou had started to tell herself she couldn’t do things. She highlights the challenge of confidence that many women face in job seeking, thinking they couldn’t be qualified for a posting unless they meet 100 per cent of the stated requirements. Men, she says, will often still apply when they meet about 60 per cent of the requirements. The confidence to apply, she says, can become a real barrier to women’s success. Mentors and sponsors, however, can help give them that confidence boost.

Djataou is seeing broad progress, despite those confidence challenges. More women are reaching the CIO level. She notes the example of Janet Yellen, the first female US Fed Chair, as a sign of a broader changing mentality among society at large as well as women in this field. There can still be confidence challenges, though. Djataou notes the example of a recent intern-level job she posted for on LinkedIn. Of the 30+ people she had reaching out to her, all were men. She often cites the advice given by her own mentor, not to limit herself, to just go for what she wants. When she follows that advice, she says, she can forget about who she is as a woman and a visible minority and focus exclusively on what she brings to the table.

“It actually sometimes plays even in my favour, where if I'm sitting in this big room with leaders and they're all men and I'm the only woman, I need to be able to look as smart, as prepared as I can, because that will help reduce this perception around women are different,” Djataou says.

To help build the confidence of others, Djataou now positions herself as a mentor. She will talk to university classes about finance as a field for women and a place where you can find balance between work and family, or even where the two are not seen as mutually exclusive. Beyond mentorship, she also sees a place for sponsorship. Where a mentor will give guidance but not vouch for you, a sponsor will. They will introduce you to a network, back your skills, and move the needle for someone. Djataou hopes that more mentors and mentees will shift into that sponsorship relationship.

While individuals can help make these changes, Djataou believes that industry can play a role in driving progress. She wants to see more aggressive targets around women’s representation in the workforce. She also wants to see government play a role, providing incentives for greater gender balance. Contrasting against these macro-level strategies, she highlights the work she and her colleagues have done to foster community, support women returning from maternity leave, and connecting women with mentors and sponsors to back them. She stresses, too, that mentees need to put in the work and convince their mentors that they should be supported.

“The biggest piece of advice I always give people is try to stand out,” Djataou says. “I have fantastic people reaching out to me saying ‘I read a great book on finance and I wanted to ask if you had any advice. They come with something, there’s a topic that can be discussed, there’s like-mindedness and there’s effort.”