International Women’s Day (IWD) is an opportunity to celebrate our team, empower others and share some of the stories that make our women successful. This year’s theme is ‘break the bias’, and we asked Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Kate Samranvedhya what IWD means to her – with a look at past and present experiences in the professional world, to viewpoints on the path to achieving equality and change, as well as one key investment theme for the year ahead.

On breaking the bias, I am still shocked to hear news of court cases where women in equivalent roles to men are paid much less. This bias has to stop. From the employer’s perspective, the legal risk from unjustifiable unequal gender-bias compensation has risen remarkably. Hopefully, these legal examples will set the course towards more equal pay for women. Another bias I see often is in the family home. In Asia, I’ve interviewed many women who are looking for a less time consuming job and are willing to accept slightly lower pay, in order to have time to look after their children, with very few male candidates responding the same way. The expectation of gender role at home is still tilted towards women for household and child-rearing responsibilities, at least in Asia. In a way, modern fathers can help shape the future of their daughters by helping their wives at home.

In many shapes and forms, various people motivate me, mentor me, hand me opportunities to shine, give me challenges to test my grit. In hindsight, the ebbs and flows of my journey have all been a lesson. This year, my lesson is learning to lean on other people for help, even when I don’t think I need it. I feel grateful when help materialises from all directions, sometimes from the most unexpected people and places.

The social construct on women’s equality has evolved to the point where the strive towards gender equality is the current cultural goal. What women can do as a collective is to raise our standards to the opportunities that are being handed to us. In core values, this means showing up with gratitude, preparation and passion. At the early stage of my career, my boss taught me to prepare like an understudy. In theatre, an understudy is a performer who learns the role of the leading actor/actress in a play, to be as good as the lead and be able to perform in a short notice in their absence. That’s the level of preparation and passion I’d like to see in the younger generations. One can never know when the opportunity will present itself. This mentality will carry through to whatever change or opportunity we pursue.

“The social construct on women’s equality has evolved to the point where the strive towards gender equality is the current cultural goal. What women can do as a collective is to raise our standards to the opportunities that are being handed to us.”

Our key theme for 2022 for all asset classes is to move up to the highest quality and liquidity strata in each asset class. Two key developments shape this conviction. The first one is that central banks around the world stop expanding their balance sheets. The US Federal Reserve is also considering Quantitative Tightening. Central banks are going to fight inflation by reversing the stimulus they put in place during the pandemic. They are taking back the easy-flowing excess liquidity in the system, in global synchronisation. The unwinding of liquidity flow can lead to higher volatility and will expose vulnerabilities in lower quality assets. The second development is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We are thinking beyond a simple direct exposure to Russia. By the sheer fact of higher geopolitical risk and higher volatility, emerging market assets should require a higher premium. The implication of cutting Russia out of SWIFT also heightens liquidity risk and the risk of oil supply disruption remains to be seen.

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