DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY

U.S. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION

2006 
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

___________________________________________________________________________ 

The Finance Industry is an important aspect of the economy including banking, credit, securities 

and insurance activities. It offers many well-paying jobs, and is expected to see growth in the 

coming years. This report examines the Finance Industry with respect to the employment of 

women, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and American Indians /Alaskan Natives. Of 

particular interest is the status of these groups in management positions. EEO-1 data is utilized 

to examine the subsectors of the Finance Industry. 

• The percentage of women officials and managers is highest in the Banking/Credit 

subsector (48.6 percent) and their lowest percentage is in the Securities subsector 

(33.8 percent). The percentage of women officials and managers in each of the 

subsectors falls below the percentage of women employed as professionals, which 

might be considered a source for management jobs. 

• Similar disparities between the percentage of African American officials and 

managers and the percentage of African American professionals are also observed. 

Among the Financial Industry subsectors, the percentage of African American 

officials and managers is highest in the Banking/Credit subsector (7.0 percent) and 

lowest in the Securities subsector (4.4 percent). 

• The percentage of Hispanic officials and managers is highest in the Central Banking 

subsector (5.1 percent) and lowest in the Securities subsector (2.9 percent). In all 

subsectors, the percentage of Hispanic officials and managers is less that the 

percentage of Hispanic professionals. 

• The highest percentage of Asian officials and managers is in the Securities subsector 

(6.4 percent) and the lowest percentage of Asian officials and managers is in Central 

Banking and Insurance (2.8 percent). Like the other groups examined, the percentage 

of Asian officials and managers falls below the percentage of Asian professionals in 

each subsector. 

• Employment as officials and managers is examined in more detail for each of these 

groups by determining their chance of being officials and managers in contrast to 

professionals and sales workers. This shows that each subsector has a large portion 

of establishments where such chances are unfavorable to women, African Americans, 

Hispanics and Asians when compared to white males. Entry into management may 

be a particular concern for Asians. 

• While the relative chance of being an official or manager is better in the Securities 

subsector for each of the groups analyzed, the low proportion of women and African 

American professionals in this subsector may be partly responsible for these results. 
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

___________________________________________________________________________ 

INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................1 

EMPLOYMENT AS OFFICIALS AND MANAGERS AND AS 

PROFESSIONALS .....................................................................................................3 

ENTRY INTO MANAGEMENT...........................................................................................11 

CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................15 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION............................................................................................16 
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

INTRODUCTION 

As part of its mandate under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, the Equal 

Employment Opportunity Commission requires periodic reports from public and private 

employers, and unions and labor organizations which indicate the composition of their work 

forces by sex and by race/ethnic category. Key among these reports is the EEO-1 which is 

collected annually from private employers with 100 or more employees or federal contractors 

with 50 more employees. The purpose of this report is to examine the Finance Industry with 

respect to the employment of women, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and American 

Indians /Alaskan Natives. White collar employment in this industry predominates and the 

analyses will therefore focus on those jobs. In particular, the analyses will look at employment 

as officials and managers. The Commission supports proactive prevention programs that are 

designed to anticipate and remove, from the workplace, potentially discriminatory practices. 

Consistent with that goal, this report seeks to assist employers in the Finance Industry make full 

use of America’s labor markets by understanding more about the characteristics of those 

markets. A general overview of what the EEO-1 reports suggest about employment in this 

industry is provided for that purpose. 

Background 

This section provides a brief overview of the subsectors making up this industry. The Finance 

Industry is, of course, an important aspect of the economy, offering many well-paying jobs, and 

is expected to see growth in the coming years.1

 The Finance Industry is composed of five 

subsectors according to the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS). Theses 

subsectors are as follows:2

The Monetary Authorities-Central Bank (Central Banking): This subsector includes 

establishments performing central banking functions, such as issuing currency, managing the 

Nation's money supply and international reserves, holding deposits that represent the reserves of 

other banks and other central banks, and acting as a fiscal agent for the central government. 

Credit Intermediation and Related Activities (Banking/Credit): This subsector consists of 

firms that (1) lend funds raised from depositors; (2) lend funds raised from credit market 

borrowing; or (3) facilitate the lending of funds or issuance of credit by engaging in such 

activities as mortgage and loan brokerage, clearinghouse and reserve services, and check cashing 

services. 

Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities 

(Securities): These establishments are primarily engaged in (1) underwriting securities issues 

 

1Career Guide to Industries, Overview and Outlook, http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/indchar.htm, downloaded April 9, 

2006

2 The industry classifications utilized in this report and the description of these industries are from the North 

American Industrial Classification system, 1997 (See http://www.census.gov/epcd/naics02/naicod02.htm .)
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

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and/or making markets for securities and commodities; (2) acting as agents (i.e., brokers) 

between buyers and sellers of securities and commodities; (3) providing securities and 

commodity exchange services; and/or (4) providing other services, such as managing portfolios 

of assets; providing investment advice; and trust, fiduciary, and custody services. 

 

Insurance Carriers and Related Activities (Insurance): This subsector is primarily engaged 

in underwriting (assuming the risk, assigning premiums, and so forth) annuities and insurance 

policies or facilitating such underwriting by selling insurance policies, and by providing other 

insurance and employee-benefit related services. 

Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles (Funds): These are legal entities (i.e., funds, 

plans, and/or programs) organized to pool securities or other assets on behalf of shareholders or 

beneficiaries of employee-benefit or other trust funds. The portfolios are customized to achieve 

specific investment characteristics, such as diversification, risk, rate of return, and price 

volatility. These entities earn interest, dividends, and other property income, but have limited 

employment and no revenue from the sale of services. Establishments with employees devoted 

to the management of funds are classified as being in the Securities subsector. 

Data 

The data used for the analysis is primarily EEO-1 reports filed by the companies identified as 

being in the Finance Industry as defined above. The Equal Employment Opportunity 

Commission (EEOC) as part of its mandate under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as 

amended operates a data collection system that collects data from nearly all employers in the 

United States with more than 100 employees. Private employers must file an Employer 

Information Report, EEO-1, with separate reports for each facility with 50 or more employees. In 

2003, more than 40,000 employers submitted reports for about 50 million employees (U.S. Equal 

Employment Opportunity Commission, 2002).3

 The EEO-1 collects race/ethnic and gender data 

annually on nine major job categories.4

 In addition to the workforce data, information about each 

establishment's North American Industrial Classification System code, the establishment's 

county, its metropolitan area code and other data is included. The EEO-1 provides data that are 

more firm specific than other possible data sources and provides useful data by job groups, 

race/ethnicity and gender. A subset of 2003 EEO-1 data consisting of 13,112 establishments in 

the Finance Industry is used.5

 

3

 Job Patterns for Minorities and Women in Private Industry, 2003, p. v. 

4 For details about these job groups and other information about the EEO-1 see the instruction booklet and the form 

at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeo1survey/e1instruct.html 

5 The original 2003 EEO-1 data base for employers in the Finance Industry has information on 13,086 

establishments. For this study, 81reports were deleted on the basis of quality control tests. The quality control tests 

identify establishments with changes in selected categories from 2002 to 2003. For example, approximately twothirds of the deleted establishments had two-digit NAICS finance codes in either 2002 or 2003 but not in both years. 

Another one-quarter of the deleted establishments switched modal job categories from 2002 to 2003 (that is, the 

most frequent job category in 2002 did not match the most frequent job category in 2003). We also added 107 

observations, present in 2002 and 2004 but missing from 2003. The 107 observations represent five parent 

companies with a combined total of 48,809 employees.
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

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EMPLOYMENT AS OFFICIALS AND MANAGERS AND AS PROFESSIONALS 

As one might expect, the finance industry utilizes a highly professionalized work force. 

Employment in blue collar job groups reported on the EEO-1 is consistently less than 2 percent 

for each of those job groups. Table 1 shows how employment is divided among white collar job

groups for each of the finance subsectors. 

TABLE 1: 

AN EXAMINATION OF THE FINANCE INDUSTRY

OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION 

PERCENT OF ALL JOBS

SUBSECTOR

TOTAL 

EMPLOYEES

OFFICIALS 

AND 

MANAGERS PROFESSIONALS TECHNICIANS SALES CLERICAL

INSURANCE 1,305,821 15.07 31.66 6.78 5.21 39.84

SECURITIES 358,009 19.44 31.93 5.54 15.94 26.56

BANKING/ 

CREDIT 1,370,674 19.50 19.62 2.92 5.12 51.58

CENTRAL 

BANKING 41,580 19.75 20.07 2.29 3.41 46.69

FUNDS 60,548 20.62 26.01 4.69 8.53 36.78

 TOTAL 3,136,632 17.67 26.16 4.85 6.44 43.49

Clearly, the bulk of employment in these firms is in the officials and managers, professionals or 

clerical job categories. The only exception is the employment of sales workers (such as stock 

brokers) in the Securities subsector. Thus, this report will initially, examine the employment of 

officials and managers then professionals, based on the assumption that the primary source of 

officials and managers in the subsectors of this industry are its professional workers. After 

examining general employment in these two job groups, more precise analyses are used by 

constructing probabilities (or odds) of being officials and managers for each of the demographic 

groups and Finance subsectors. 

Officials and Managers 

Table 2 shows how women and nonwhite employees are employed in the officials and managers 

job category in each of the Finance subsectors. 
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

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TABLE 2: PARTICIPATION RATES6

WOMEN AND NONWHITE OFFICIALS AND MANAGERS IN THE FINANCE SUBSECTORS

PERCENT OF OFFICIALS AND MANAGERS 

SUBSECTOR 

OFFICIALS 

AND MANAGERS 

WOMEN BLACK HISPANIC ASIAN 

AMER ICAN 

INDIAN 

CENTRAL BANKING 8,213 47.3 6.8 5.1 2.8 0.3

BANKING/CREDIT 267,213 48.6 7.0 5.0 4.3 0.3

SECURITIES 69,603 33.8 4.4 2.9 6.4 0.1

INSURANCE 196,750 47.9 6.4 3.1 2.8 0.3

FUNDS 12,488 41.2 5.1 3.3 5.1 0.2

As Table 2 demonstrates, the highest percent of women officials and mangers is in the 

Banking/Credit subsector and their lowest representation is in the Securities subsector. The 

employment of African Americans and Hispanics as officials and managers is highest in Central 

Banking and Banking/Credit and lowest in the Securities subsector. While the percentage of 

women, African American and Hispanic officials and managers is lowest in the Securities 

subsector, this is in contrast to Asian employment. Asians are most frequently employed as 

officials and managers in the Securities subsector. The lowest percentage of Asian officials and 

managers is in Central Banking and Insurance.7 

Table 3 presents the same type of tabulation for women of color. With respect to percentage of 

officials and managers, the best subsectors for the employment of women of color are Banking 

and Credit for African American and Hispanic women and Securities and Funds for Asian 

TABLE 3: PARTICIPATION RATES 

WOMEN OF COLOR IN OFFICIALS AND MANAGERS JOBS

PERCENT OF OFFICIALS AND MANAGERS 

SUBSECTOR 

BLACK 

WOMEN 

HISPANIC 

WOMEN 

ASIAN 

WOMEN 

AMER ICAN 

INDIAN 

CENTRAL BANKING 3.8 2.5 1.6 0.1

BANKING/CREDIT 4.5 2.8 2.0 0.2

SECURITIES 2.2 1.2 2.4 0.1

INSURANCE 4.2 1.7 1.3 0.1

FUNDS 2.9 1.6 2.4 0.1

 

6 Participation rates are percentages where, for example, the number of women officials and managers is divided by 

the number of all officials and managers and the proportion is converted to a percentage. 

7 Results for American Indians/Alaskan Natives (American Indian) are reported in the data tables but these 

percentages are too small for meaningful comparisons. 
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

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women. Again, consistent with the results in Table 2, the best industries for Asian women are 

the least favorable for African American and Hispanic women. 

Professionals 

When looking at the professional job group, we find that generally the percentages of women 

and nonwhites are higher in professional jobs than in officials and manager jobs (see Table 4). 

TABLE 4: PARTICIPATION RATES 

WOMEN AND NONWHITE PROFESSIONALS 

IN THE FINANCE SUBSECTORS

PERCENT OF PROFESSIONALS 

SUBSECTOR PROFESSIONALS

WOMEN BLACK HISPANIC ASIAN

AMERICAN 

 INDIAN

CENTRAL BANKING 8,345 51.1 13.3 5.2 8.1 0.3

BANKING/CREDIT 268,871 54.0 9.7 5.8 7.9 0.4

SECURITIES 114,312 40.3 7.0 4.4 13.1 0.2

INSURANCE 413,360 60.3 9.0 3.9 4.9 0.3

FUNDS 15,750 52.3 7.1 3.7 7.8 0.3

Employment of women as professionals seems relatively high in the Insurance subsector and in 

the Banking/Credit subsector especially when compared to Securities. African Americans are 

employed at a higher rate as professionals in Central Banking, than the other subsectors. 

Employment in the Securities and the Funds subsectors has the lowest percentage of this group. 

Hispanic employment as professionals appears to be a bit more evenly distributed, with the 

percentage of Hispanic employment the highest in the Banking/Credit subsector and the lowest 

in the Funds subsector. Asian professionals are most prevalent in the Securities subsector and 

least prevalent in the Insurance subsector. 

TABLE 5: PARTICIPATION RATES 

WOMEN OF COLOR AS PROFESSIONALS 

IN THE FINANCE SUBSECTORS

PERCENT OF PROFESSIONALS 

SUBSECTOR

BLACK 

WOMEN 

HISPANIC 

WOMEN 

ASIAN 

WOMEN 

AMERICAN

INDIAN

WOMEN 

CENTRAL BANKING 8.5 2.8 3.9 0.1

BANKING/CREDIT 6.7 3.4 3.9 0.2

SECURITIES 4.0 2.0 5.3 0.1

INSURANCE 6.7 2.5 2.6 0.2

FUNDS 4.6 2.0 4.0 0.2
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

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Patterns for the employment of women of color as professionals in the finance industry are 

consistent with those reported for all nonwhites. African American women are most frequently 

employed as professionals in Central Banking (8.5 percent), Hispanic women in Banking/Credit 

(3.4 percent) and Asian women in the Securities subsector (5.3 percent). As when examining the 

total for these groups, the low employment rate of African American and Hispanic women in the 

Securities subsector stands in contrast to high employment rate of Asian women as professionals 

there. 

Officials and Managers Compared To Professionals 

The section provides a series of graphs in order to provide an overview of how women and 

nonwhite employment as officials and managers compares to their employment as professionals. 

Figure 1 shows the disparities between women officials and managers and women professionals. 

Note that for women the largest disparities are observed in the Insurance and Funds subsectors. 

FIGURE 1: PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN OFFICIALS AND 

MANAGERS AND PROFESSIONALS BY SUBSECTOR 

47.3 48.6

33.8

47.9

41.2

51.1

54

40.3

60.3

52.3

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

CENTRAL BANKING BANKING/CREDIT SECURITIES INSURANCE FUNDS

SUBSECTOR

PERCENT

WOMEN O&M %

WOMEN PROFESSIONALS %

PERCENT OF WOMEN 

SUBSECTOR OFFICIALS AND MANAGERS PROFESSIONALS 

CENTRAL BANKING 47.3 51.1 

BANKING/CREDIT 48.6 54.0

SECURITIES 33.8 40.3

INSURANCE 47.9 60.3

FUNDS 41.2 52.3
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

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Figure 2 displays disparities between African Americans as professionals and as officials and 

managers in the Finance industry. The disparities between employment as officials and 

managers and as professionals are relatively similar in each of the subsectors except for Central 

Banking. Here a relatively high employment rate for African American professionals (13.3 

percent) appears to be quite different than the percentage of African American officials and 

managers (6.8 percent). 

FIGURE 2: PERCENTAGE OF 

AFRICAN AMERICAN OFFICIALS AND 

MANAGERS AND PROFESSIONALS BY SUBSECTOR 

6.8 7

4.4

6.4

5.1

13.3

9.7

7

9

7.1

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

CENTRAL BANKING

BANKING/CREDIT

SECURITIES

INSURANCE

FUNDS

SUBSECTOR

PERCENT

BLACK O&M %

BLACK PROFESSIONALS %

PERCENT AFRICAN AMERICAN 

SUBSECTOR OFFICIALS AND MANAGERS PROFESSIONALS 

CENTRAL BANKING 6.8 13.3 

BANKING/CREDIT 7.0 9.7

SECURITIES 4.4 7.0

INSURANCE 6.4 9.0

FUNDS 5.1 7.1
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

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Figure 3 shows that Hispanic employment as professionals and as officials and managers is fairly 

consistent, with differences normally less than one percent. The exception is the Securities 

subsector. 

FIGURE 3: PERCENTAGE OF 

HISPANIC OFFICIALS AND 

MANAGERS AND PROFESSIONALS BY SUBSECTOR 

5.1 5

2.9

3.1

3.3

5.2

5.8

4.4

3.9

3.7

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

CENTRAL BANKING

BANKING/CREDIT

SECURITIES

INSURANCE

FUNDS

SUBSECTOR

PERCENT

HISPANIC O&M %

HISPANIC PROFESSIONAL %

PERCENT HISPANIC 

SUBSECTOR OFFICIALS AND MANAGERS PROFESSIONALS 

CENTRAL BANKING 5.1 5.2 

BANKING/CREDIT 5.0 5.8

SECURITIES 2.9 4.4

INSURANCE 3.1 3.9

FUNDS 3.3 3.7
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

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Figure 4 displays these figures for Asians. Here the differences between the percentage of Asian 

officials and managers and Asian professionals are clearly more pronounced than those observed 

for the other groups reported above. 

FIGURE 4: PERCENTAGE OF 

ASIAN OFFICIALS AND 

MANAGERS AND PROFESSIONALS BY SUBSECTOR 

2.8

4.3

6.4

2.8

5.1

8.1 7.9

13.1

4.9

7.8

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

CENTRAL BANKING

BANKING/CREDIT

SECURITIES

INSURANCE

FUNDS

SUBSECTOR

PERCENT

ASIAN O&M %

ASIAN PROFESSIONALS %

PERCENT ASIAN 

SUBSECTOR OFFICIALS AND MANAGERS PROFESSIONALS 

CENTRAL BANKING 2.8 8.1 

BANKING/CREDIT 4.3 7.9

SECURITIES 6.4 13.1

INSURANCE 2.8 4.9

FUNDS 5.1 7.8
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

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While Asians make up about 13.1 percent of all professionals in the Securities subsector, they 

drop to about half that amount, about 6.4 percent, in the officials and managers category. The 

difference between Asian professionals in Central Banking (8.1 percent) and Asian officials and 

managers (2.8 percent) is also notable. 

Table 6 displays the differences between the employment of women of color in these two job 

groups. 

TABLE 6: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN 

PERCENTAGE OF OFFICIALS AND MANAGERS AND 

PERCENTAGE OF PROFESSIONALS BY SUBSECTOR 

FOR WOMEN OF COLOR

SUBSECTOR 

BLACK 

WOMEN 

DIFFERENCE 

HISPANIC 

WOMEN 

DIFFERENCE 

ASIAN 

WOMEN 

DIFFERENCE 

CENTRAL BANKING 4.7 0.3 2.3 

BANKING/CREDIT 2.2 0.6 1.9 

SECURITIES 1.8 0.8 2.9 

INSURANCE 2.5 0.8 1.3 

FUNDS 1.7 0.4 1.6 

The disparities for women of color are not inconsistent with those seen when examining 

nonwhites in general. 

This section identified some very broad disparities between the employment of women and 

nonwhite officials and managers and their employment as professionals for various subsectors of 

the Finance industry. There are similar disparities for women of color but they do not appear to 

be any greater than that observed for nonwhites in general. It appears to be useful at this point to 

examine these differences for women, African Americans, Hispanics and Asians with a bit more 

precision. 
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

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ENTRY INTO MANAGEMENT 

In order to examine employment of officials and managers in more detail, each of the examined 

groups was compared to white males. Specifically, the chances of the examined group being 

officials and managers were compared to the chances of white males being officials and 

managers. An odds ratio8

 was constructed that assumes that the pool for the target job group, 

officials and managers, consists of professionals and sales workers.9

 The odds of being in the 

officials and managers job group can be expressed by the ratio of two proportions. 

For example, consider Table 7 showing the relationship between women and white male 

employment as officials and managers and as professional and sales workers in the Finance 

Industry: 

TABLE 7: EXAMPLE OF AN ODDS RATIO FOR THE FINANCE 

INDUSTRY 

JOB GROUPS 

WHITE 

MEN WOMEN TOTAL 

OFFICIALS AND MANAGERS 261,230 256,579 517,809 

PROFESSIONALS AND SALES 403,619 530,855 934,474 

TOTAL 664,849 787,434 1,452,283 

The proportion of women management employees is 0.326 (256,579/787,434), so the proportion 

of women professional and sales workers is 0.674 (1-0.326). The proportion of white male 

management employees is 0.393 (261,230/664,849) and the proportion of white male 

professional and sales workers is 0.607 (1-0.393). The odds of being a management employee is 

0.484 (.326/0.674) for female employees and 0.647 (0.393/0.607) for male employees. The odds 

ratio between female and white male employees can be formulated as the ratio of two odds as 

follows: 

 Odds Ratio = (Management Odds for Females) / (Management Odds for Males) 

 

 = (0.484 ) / (0.647) 

 

 = 0.748. 

 

8

 Fienberg, S. (1977) The Analysis of Cross-Classified Categorical Data, The MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 17-18. 

Also see Agresti, A. (2002) Categorical Data Analysis, second edition, John Wiley and Sons, New York, pp. 44-46; 

Breslow, N. and Day, N. (1980) Statistical Methods in Cancer Research, IARC, Lyon, p. 125; Finkelstein, M. and 

Levin, B. (1990) Statistics for Lawyers, Springer-Verlag, New York, p. 2. 9 Sales workers were used to primarily to account for the importance of brokers in the securities industry. For ease 

of calculation and exposition, they are used for all subsectors but would have little impact in the other subsectors. 
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

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Odds ratios with values of 1.0 can be interpreted as a measure of racial or gender neutrality. 

Odds ratios with values substantially greater than 1.0 reflect disparities favorable to females or 

nonwhites. Odds ratios with values substantially less than 1.0 reflect disparities unfavorable to 

females or people of nonwhites. 

Comparisons are drawn between the control group of white men and the various groups of 

interest: women, African Americans, Hispanics and Asians. Odds ratios are computed by 

comparing the odds of being an official or manager in the group of interest to the odds of being 

an official or manager and a white male. The log of this ratio equals zero when the group of 

interest has odds that are equal to the odds for white males. Logged values greater than zero 

(positive values) indicate that the group’s odds of being officials and managers are higher than 

that of white males.10

Logged odds ratios were computed for each establishment in the Finance industry filing EEO-1 

reports as explained above.11 Some firms have either positive or negative logged odds ratios, 

other firms approach the neutral value of a zero logged odds ratio. What is interesting then is to 

see how the log of the odds ratios are distributed across firms. In the following tables, the 

median log of the odds ratio is presented along with the cutoff values for the first quartile (lowest 

25 percent of values) and the third quartile value (highest 25 percent of values). The number and 

percent of firms with positive odds (that is, logged odds values greater than zero) are also 

presented. Positive logged odds ratios are important measures because they represent the point 

at which the group being analyzed has odds of being officials and managers that exceed those for 

white males. 

Table 8 shows that the highest median log of the odds ratio for women is in the Securities 

subsector. That is, the odds of women being officials and managers compared to white men 

(0.043) are higher here than in other subsectors. Note that it is also the only area where the 

median values indicate that the odds for women being managers (officials and managers) are 

greater than the odds for white men being managers, that is, positive logged odds ratios. 

However, as can be seen by examining the third-quartile values, there are establishments in the 

other subsectors with positive logged odds ratios. Table 8 also shows that in 51.4 percent of 

establishments in the 

10 It is important to emphasize that the EEO-1 Survey collects cross-sectional information on the number of 

employees occupying various job groups at a given point in time. The EEO-1 Survey does not collect flow or 

transactional information on the number of employees that move within or across job groups. In particular, the 

EEO-1 Survey does not show how many employees are promoted from one job group to another over time. Given 

the absence of promotion data, the EEO-1 data used here is best viewed as a preliminary screening device designed 

to detect potential disparities in management opportunities for gender and race/ethnic groups. 11 As an initial step, a common odds ratio was computed for each of the groups of interest for the entire Finance 

industry and then for each subsector. This computation indicated that the establishments in this industry and within 

the subsectors are very heterogeneous. This means that the common logged odds ratio is not a useful measure 

because there is high variation between firms. 
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

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Securities subsector, women have odds of being managers that are greater than the odds for 

males. The percentage of establishments where women have higher odds than white men is 

lowest (23.52 percent) in the Insurance subsector. 

TABLE 8: QUARTILE SUMMARY TABLES FROM LOGGED ODDS RATIOS 

WOMEN QUARTILE VALUES 

 

ESTABLISHMENTS 

POSITIVE LOGGED 

FINANCE ODDS RATIOS 

SUBSECTOR 

 

FIRST 

QUARTILE

 

MEDIAN

VALUE 

 

THIRD 

QUARTILE

VALUE TOTAL NUMBER PERCENT

CENTRAL BANKING -1.299 -0.426 0.274 261 82 31.42 

BANKING/CREDIT -0.926 -0.336 0.264 5,420 1,872 34.54

SECURITIES -0.597 0.043 0.902 1,358 698 51.40

INSURANCE -1.111 -0.579 -0.029 4,727 1,112 23.52

FUNDS -1.109 -0.546 0.179 250 74 29.60

Table 9 shows the results for African Americans. Here the median logged odds ratio is once 

again highest for the Securities subsector, but it has negative values for all of the subsectors 

ranging from -0.534 to -0.011. For each of the industries the distribution of the logged odds ratio 

exceeds zero (positive odds ratios) by the upper one-fourth of establishments’ values. For 

example, 25 percent of all establishments in the Central Banking subsector have logged odds 

ratios of 0.21 or higher. As with women, if one examines the percent of establishments with 

positive logged odds ratios for African Americans, the Securities subsector has the highest 

portion of establishments (49.01 percent) and the Insurance subsector has the lowest (29.24 

percent). 

TABLE 9: QUARTILE SUMMARY TABLES FROM LOGGED ODDS RATIOS 

AFRICAN AMERICAN QUARTILE VALUES 

 

ESTABLISHMENTS 

POSITIVE LOGGED 

ODDS RATIOS FINANCE 

SUBSECTOR 

 

FIRST 

QUARTILE

 

MEDIAN

VALUE 

 

THIRD 

QUARTILE

VALUE TOTAL NUMBER PERCENT

CENTRAL BANKING -1.253 -0.439 0.210 116 36 31.03 

BANKING/CREDIT -1.177 -0.452 0.309 3,501 1,179 33.68

SECURITIES -0.812 -0.011 0.995 1,010 495 49.01

INSURANCE -1.224 -0.534 0.171 3,701 1,082 29.24

FUNDS -1.307 -0.498 0.263 195 60 30.77
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

14 

 

Table 10 displays the calculations for Hispanics. Like women and African Americans, the 

median logged odds ratio is highest for the Securities subsector, but Hispanics fare somewhat 

better than African Americans because the median value for Hispanics is greater than zero 

(0.012). Thus, approximately one-half of establishments in the Securities subsector have 

positive logged odds ratios for Hispanic employment as officials and managers. Another 

positive result for Hispanics is the percent of firms displaying positive logged odds ratios across 

the subsectors. In each of the subsectors, at least 30 percent of all establishments meet this 

condition. Again, the largest percentage is in the Securities subsector, and the lowest is in the 

Central Banking subsector. 

TABLE10: CREATE QUARTILE SUMMARY TABLES FROM LOGGED ODDS RATIOS 

HISPANICS QUARTILE VALUES

 

ESTABLISHMENTS 

POSITIVE LOGGED 

ODDS RATIOS FINANCE 

SUBSECTOR 

 

FIRST 

QUARTILE

 

MEDIAN

VALUE 

 

THIRD 

QUARTILE

VALUE TOTAL NUMBER PERCENT

CENTRAL BANKING -1.350 -0.669 0.318 84 26 30.95 

BANKING/CREDIT -1.210 -0.436 0.333 3,176 1068 33.63

SECURITIES -0.775 0.012 0.993 948 476 50.21

INSURANCE -1.142 -0.420 0.336 3,119 1085 34.79

FUNDS -1.237 -0.524 0.488 167 60 35.93

Table 11 shows that, generally, the results for Asians are less encouraging than that for the other 

groups. Similar to other groups, the median logged odds ratio is highest for the Securities 

subsector, but it is less than zero (-0.333). Asians have some of the lowest median logged odds 

ratios reported in Tables 8 through 11. Further, only in the Securities subsector does the percent 

of establishments (39.21 percent) with positive logged odds ratios reach one-third of 

establishments. 

TABLE 11: QUARTILE SUMMARY TABLES FROM LOGGED ODDS RATIOS 

ASIANS QUARTILE VALUES 

ESTABLISHMENTS 

POSITIVE LOGGED 

ODDS RATIOS FINANCE 

SUBSECTOR 

 

FIRST 

QUARTILE

 

MEDIAN

VALUE 

 

THIRD 

QUARTILE

VALUE TOTAL NUMBER PERCENT

CENTRAL 

BANKING -1.686 -0.711 0.167 86 24 27.91

BANKING/CREDIT -1.290 -0.631 0.100 2,817 762 27.05

SECURITIES -1.034 -0.333 0.619 1,015 398 39.21

INSURANCE -1.298 -0.573 0.143 2,872 829 28.86

FUNDS -1.493 -0.525 0.255 160 47 29.38
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

15 

 

 

CONCLUSION 

In examining the Finance subsectors with respect to the employment of women, African 

Americans, Hispanics and Asians as officials and managers, one must be somewhat cautious in 

interpreting the positive results for the Securities industry. The odds ratio used to measure 

employment in this job group depends on employment in both the target job group (officials and 

managers) and a pool job group (professionals and sale workers). The greater the disparity 

between the target job group and the pool job group, the larger the value of the odds ratio. 

Compared to the other subsectors, the Securities subsector consistently has the lowest percentage 

of women professionals (40.3 percent), and African Americans professionals (7.0 percent). The 

smaller pool of these workers may influence the odds ratios computed here. For example, in the 

Banking/Credit subsector, 48.6 percent of all officials and managers are women, while just 33.8 

percent of officials and managers in the Securities subsector are women. The high percentage of 

women professionals, 54 percent in the Banking/Credit subsector may make the achievement of 

positive odds ratios more difficult. In contrast, having a lower percentage (40.3 percent) of 

women professionals in the Securities subsector, may make the achievement of positive odds 

ratios less difficult. This can occur even though the employment of women as officials and 

managers and as professionals is lower in the Securities subsector than in Banking/Credit and the 

other subsectors. This might be interpreted as suggesting that for women and African Americans 

in the Securities subsector, entry into professional and sales jobs may be as much an issue as 

entry into management. 

By using a comparison group of white males and comparing odds of being officials and 

managers in contrast to professionals and sales workers, we can see that while there is substantial 

equity in these odds, there remains a large portion of establishments where these odds are 

unfavorable to women, African Americans, Hispanics and Asians. Entry into management may 

be a particular concern for Asians in the Finance industry. 
DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY 

 

16 

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 

For additional information, visit our web site at http://www.eeoc.gov. Click on STATISTICS and 

JOB PATTERNS FOR MINORITIES AND WOMEN (http://www.eeoc.gov/stats 

/jobpat/jobpat.html) for sample copies of the EEO-1 form, an instruction booklet and aggregate 

statistics. 

Prepared By: 

Office of Research, Information and Planning 

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 

 Washington, D.C.