Moody's / Gender & Finance

Leadership programs

In 2020, Moody’s established the TIDE Program, a high potential diversity initiative aimed at elevating women and people of color to leadership positions. The program is designed to enhance career opportunities, engagement and retention through individual development experiences. TIDE builds on Moody’s Senior Women’s Development Program, a twelve-month program launched in 2014. To date, 110 senior women leaders have graduated from the program, which is offered to employees worldwide.

We recently expanded our RE-IGNITE Program, a paid 16-week initiative designed for anyone who wants to restart their careers after a minimum two-year break. The program aims to increase diverse representation, especially women and mothers, while attracting top talent to Moody’s. Since its inception in 2017, we have proudly converted 75% of the participants to Moody’s employees.

Gender equality rankings

We’re proud to be included in a range of gender equality rankings. Moody’s has been recognized in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index over the past two years for our investments in gender equality in the workplace and in the communities where we operate. We have also been named to the Working Mother 100 Best Companies list for five consecutive years. This list recognizes US organizations that lead in areas of advancement for women, related benefits, paid parental leave and more.

Congratulations to Louise Green and Kendra Smith
for being recognized on International Women’s Day

Congratulations to Louise Green and Kendra Smith for being recognized on International Women’s Day

Louise Green

General Manager - Marketing,
Moody's Analytics

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Kendra Smith

Managing Director - Public Finance,
Moody's Investors Service

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Supporting gender equality in our communities

We are committed to closing the gender gap in finance and tech through programs and partnerships that support women business owners and prepare high school girls for careers in financial services.

Supporting women to grow their businesses

Despite being one of the most pivotal drivers of sustainable economic growth, women-owned businesses around the world continue to face barriers when trying to access both markets and capital. Through Moody’s ReshapeTomorrow™ program, we’re helping women business owners gain better access to capital and markets as well as promoting greater prosperity and opportunity at every level of the market.
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In 2019, Moody’s launched the ‘Financing Your Growing Business’ program with WEConnect International to support women in growing their businesses. The program consists of interactive bootcamps and online training modules that focus on credit training and accessing markets and capital. In the past two years, our boot camps served more than 200 women in 7 countries including Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Nigeria, Malaysia and Singapore. In addition, our online training module is accessible to 11,500+ women in 125 countries. In 2021, we’re proud to expand the program to Costa Rica, Japan, Mexico and South Africa.

Moody’s also collaborated with WEConnect to form the ‘Council on Scaling Women-Owned Businesses.’ Moody’s Global Head of CSR, Arlene Isaacs-Lowe, chaired the Council which conducted research and explored the best solutions for scaling women-owned businesses. These findings were illustrated in the report, How to Rebuild Global Business for Good published in June 2020, which identified the barriers facing women business owners and outlined a global strategy to support inclusive economic growth during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moody’s has also expanded its partnership with Village Capital in support of their ‘Future of Work’ Africa program with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Women’s Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (WeFi). The program will source, support and scale up to 30 startups, with a focus on women-led startups, that are providing services to help solve the youth unemployment crisis. The program will also test interventions focused on mitigating the gender financing gap. The findings will inform broader research under the IFC’s WeFi program, which will be released in 2021 along with a toolkit of best practices for key ecosystem builders around the world.

Preparing girls for careers in financial services

As a company founded on data analysis, Moody’s is dedicated to preparing young people for careers in finance, technology and economics. By providing internships, mentorship and resources, we’re helping girls to make better career decisions.

Moody’s partners with Girls Who Code (GWC) on a unique summer program that provides US high school students with the chance to explore the applications of computer science and engage with women leaders in tech. At least half of the girls served by Girls Who Code come from historically underrepresented groups, including girls who are Black, Latinx, or from low-income backgrounds. Over the course of the partnership, 200 girls have participated in the program and Moody’s has hired 12 alumni into full time positions. We’re proud to have the support of our Board members Kathryn Hill and Leslie Seidman, and our CIO, Mona Breed, on the GWC summer program. Watch them give advice and guidance to the next generation of women in tech.

To help close the gender gap in finance and technology, Moody’s created Generation Giga Girls, known as “G3”, six years ago in a joint effort with Girls Inc. As the first-ever data analytics program for girls from low-income communities, G3 is helping girls build skills in technology and data analytics. Since G3’s launch, we have reached over 1,000 students throughout New York City. The program is crucial for addressing the gender gap in STEM, especially the disproportionate number (less than 5%) of women of color. Since the program’s inception, 33% of program graduates chose STEM majors in college.

In addition to G3, we collaborated with Girls Inc. on their 2020 report, Stronger, Smarter, Bolder: Girls Take the Lead, to further our commitment to applying a gender lens to research. The report analyzes the tools and resources girls need to obtain leadership roles in business and society. Atsi Sheth, MD - Credit Strategy, supplemented the report with Moody’s own research on women in the labor force, gender diversity, and achievements in higher education. This helped to demonstrate the direct link between the work of Girls Inc. and outcomes in the economy and financial system.