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Women on Wall St movie Aussie screening uncertain

What to expect from the all-female investment banking movie Equity: more greed, power plays in other words a good Wall Street flick.
Bianca Hartge-Hazelman
August 26, 2016

This September, we were hoping that Australian cinemas would finally get to see the first female investment banker movie on Wall St, Equity, but now it seems the flick won’t be widely released.

While we look into why this might be the case – the reviews are saying that the film is a good one and not just because the stars are in heels.

The movie adds to the long list of money-grabbing banking films since the global financial crisis, including recent hit The Big Short and The Wolf of Wall Street.

But Equity is different because it provides a refreshing take on what happens on Wall Street as seen through a female lense, including the regular powerplays, greed, jealously and battles fought in this tale by women getting to and at the top.

https://youtu.be/KzdFmVYdpMQ

It also gives us a greater insight into what women go through in investment banking land. Surprisingly there’s no hard data collected on the number of women working in this area in Australia, according to Women in Banking and Finance.

But what we do know is that the numbers are small, particularly in money manager and corporate dealing rooms.

This is despite the fact that women make up 55 per cent of the total Australian financial services industry, and of that number 40 per cent work full time, compared to 41 per cent of men.

In the United States, the picture is a little different and according to statistics compiled by the financial-services firm PwC with women make up 60 per cent of the employees in its industry worldwide—and yet only 19 perc ent make it to leadership roles and 2 per cent becoming chief executive officers.

Equity is very much a new age Hollywood film and it will be interesting to see what it collects at the box office. It was written, directed, produced, and starred in by women with Anna Gunn from Breaking Bad the lead of this Wall Street thriller.

Gunn’s character is Naomi Bishop, who is the lead banker of the world’s biggest investment bank is up against it all, including a best friend who is close to nailing her for securities fraud, a hedge fund boyfriend who is ready to undercut her, an understudy who wants her job – all while hiding that she’s actually pregnant.

What’s appealing about this movie, which hits Australian movie screens in late September, is its point of difference without going down a feminist path.

According to Rolling Stone magazine, Equity is “The She-Wolf of Wall Street”.  In this review, we find out that Gunn is up against it all and can’t trust anyone – sounds just like investment banking!

Business Insider added “Equity is not an overtly feminist statement. It’s not a story about women fighting to break the glass ceiling or getting overlooked because of their sex. Really, it just feels like a great Wall Street movie in which the main characters happen to be women,” writes Portia Crowe in this report.

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Bianca Hartge-Hazelman
August 26, 2016
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