Striking the Gender Balance and Empowering Females to Take On Executive Roles

Tuesday, June 18th, 2019

Recently, the UK Women in Payments (WIP) Webinar took place in London, acknowledging active leaders who help hold the fort for females in the payments sector.

Melissa McKendry of ACI and the VP of Retail banking Implementation Services was among the women recognized for their hard work. WIP crowned her as 2019’s Advocate for females.

Melissa has been proactive in advocating for equality and diversity in the payments sector and has been loud in the recent public discussions on the UK Gender Pay gap law. The activist has also played a pivotal role in the expansion of ACI’s Coding for Girls project, introducing it to the UK last year.

Speaking to aciworld.com, here’s what Melissa thinks about women in payments.

What’s your opinion on gender inequality in the payments industry?

Melissa: To start with, it helps to draw the line between gender pay and equal pay. The latter means workers designated similar duties get the same pay, irrespective of their gender.

In contrast, rather than comparing duties, gender pay scrutinizes the average salary for females and males in a company. Most UK organizations are still far away from bridging the gender pay gap because of the lower proportion of females in executive roles.

What’s more, males have dominated the global payments software market for a long time. Most of the best-paying jobs in our business require technical expertise and are, in most cases, sought after by men.

Women need to pull up their socks in the race for these top jobs, and that’s the driving factor behind my support for ACI Coding for Girls seminar in the UK. We must teach our young girls that coding and programming are not as complicated as they assume, it is a creative well-paying job.

How has the Coding for Girls UK Initiative been received by Young Females and their Parents?

Melissa: The program has been well-accepted. Female students appreciate the event, in particular, its focus on the available high-paying career opportunities and how this relates to their personal interests.

After the event, we allowed learners to build on whatever they’d learned, and most of them were eager to take on the next level of the courses they were introduced to. Their parents, a good number, support the idea but are cynical over the fact that our program is a free event and offers excellent content and job visibility for learners.

Parents have even requested more regular after-school lessons and asked if we can include some local colleges in the initiative, which we’ll plan to do moving forward.

What were the Major challenges identified for Females in the payments industry?

Melissa: Among the main challenges included, the struggle to strike a balance between work and life, equal recognition and opportunities for females in the payments sector. Most women eyeing top jobs in their careers said they were willing to take calculated risks, where situations demanded, without compromising on their personal lives.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully Melissa, as the Advocate for females, will help empower our women to race for top-paying jobs in the payment sector- a space that has for years been dominated by males.