Eve Maddock-Jones (pictured), features editor at Investment Week
As ever, a lot has happened in markets this week.
The US Treasury carried out record breaking sales of various government bonds, the S&P 500 surpassed the 5,000 mark for the first time, Digital 9 Infrastructure hit a new wall in its wind up process, Hipgnosis shareholders approved the £20m bidder incentive and the Woodford scheme of arrangement was sanctioned by the High Court.
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I would (of course) encourage you to read the excellent coverage from the Investment Week team on these major events.
But this week, I want to use my Friday Briefing as a call-out to women in the investment industry who have a story to share.
International Women's Day is just under a month away, and Investment Week is in the middle of determining how we can best utilise our platform to cover this important annual event.
While the focus at a news level will be on providing women, or persons identifying as women, room to give their professional insights on portfolio allocation or macroeconomics, rather than only being asked for an opinion when it is about our gendered experiences, the latter is still something I want to offer a space for.
Within that, there is a glaring white elephant in the room about DE&I calendar days.
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Often when bringing attention to one marginalised group, there is the disappointing reality that there are still many more under that umbrella which are even more ignored.
I am referring to the white, heteronormative lens events are usually covered through, and the fact that anything outside of that is infrequently spotlighted in the conversations about people's experiences within the financial services industry.
Speaking as a white, cisgender, heterosexual woman, I recognise that I am offered more representation on these DE&I advocacy dates because that has been the long-term ‘norm'.
I am fully aware that I am not the person to speak about the experiences of my peers, but especially marginalised groups I fall outside of.
But what I can do is offer a space for those stories to be shared.
Recognising that alongside promoting the habit of listening to women in finance because they are experts at what they do and are worth listening to that fact, versus just talking to them once a year because they are women and people have DE&I obligations to fill, the very real human problem of women and non-white, non-straight women, for example, not being visible still needs to be highlighted.
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So, I'm putting a call-out here that my first Friday Briefing next month will be a dedicated space to any woman that wants to share a story about their experiences as a member of a marginalised community within our industry.
This will be a chance to highlight the most overlooked women's stories and raise awareness of other social barriers people face, alongside experiencing gender discrimination.
The comments will be run verbatim, and you can either be named or anonymous.
Even if you don't want to be included in the piece, but want me to hear what you have to say, I would greatly enjoy that conversation.
Email me on [email protected], or call +44 (0)20 7484 9872 or DM me on X, formerly Twitter, @EveMadJ with your stories.
This article was first published as part of the Friday Briefing series, which is available exclusively to Investment Week members each week. Sign up here to receive the Friday Briefing to your inbox each week.
