There's no question that women are historically underrepresented in financial services, so scholarships designed to help women advance in this area are hugely significant. Moreover, the ways these scholarships can further this goal include:
- Providing access to roles that are traditionally male-dominated: when more financial resources are available to women who want to improve their career prospects by achieving Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certification, their career paths expand, leading to more gender diversity in the workplace.
- Providing access to educational resources: women are often disadvantaged when it comes to gaining access to educational resources needed to advance their careers. In fact, they face many obstacles that men don’t. By providing educational opportunities and resources to women, they can better navigate their career trajectory.
- Providing pay equality: the wage gap between men and women is still very much present. In order for women to work towards making up for this gap in income they need to have access to the same resources and education as men.
If you're a woman working in the financial services sector and are interested in obtaining the CFA certification, then various scholarships are available to assist your career goals. The scholarships listed below are either exclusively for or open to women worldwide!
Chartered Financial Analyst Institute (CFAI) Women’s Scholarship
The CFAI Women’s Scholarship is available globally to women interested in obtaining the CFA Charter but aren’t eligible for other CFAI scholarships. The CFA awards the recipient a free CFA Program enrolment and lowers the registration fee to $350. Eligible scholarship candidates must either be new or continuing candidates in the CFA Program, and candidates must be in good standing with CFAI. The CFAI Scholarship is typically open from November 1st to the 28th.
UWorld CFA Career Advancement Scholarship
The UWorld CFA Career Advancement Scholarship’s mission is to assist college students who are academically advanced and outstanding citizens but who might encounter financial limitations. The scholarship offers women worldwide an opportunity to attain the highest levels of finance certification via the CFA Charter.
UWorld provides up to ten CFA Level 1 candidates with everything they need to prepare and take the exam. Each recipient receives more than $1,400 worth of prep resources and financial aid, including a full scholarship subscription to UWorld’s Level 1 QBank, a one-time enrolment to the CFA Institute, and coverage of the registration fee to sit for the Level I exam in the period designated by the recipient. Do keep in mind that candidates are selected based on merit and involvement.
Other CFA Institute Scholarships:
- Access Scholarship: awarded to candidates who cannot afford the CFAI program fees.
- Student Scholarship: awarded to university students who have not registered for their next CFA Exam.
- Professor Scholarship: awarded to full-time college or university professors or administrator/department heads who teach a certain number of credit hours and have not registered for the CFA Exam.
- Regulator Scholarship: awarded to employees of entities that oversee or regulate operations, standards of practice, or business conduct of the investment management industry.
- Media Scholarship: awarded to full-time or contract employees of media organisations.
