The Triple Glass Ceiling: the gendered and racialised inequalities of FinTech

这项博士研究将把批判性的视角应用到金融科技身上，推动我从本科毕业论文开始的研究兴趣。存在着一个重大的悖论：金融科技正在推进金融服务，同时延续对女性的歧视(斯帕克斯和埃肯罗德，2020年；克兰普纳等人，2020年；布雷特，2018年)。在金融科技，普遍存在的性别不平等是金融(参见Ellingrud等人，2021年；麦克道尔，1997年)和技术(参见纳什和摩尔，2019年；梅西，1995年)部门和企业家(参见.罗斯，2019年；巴拉钱德拉等人，2019年；康泽等人，2017年)，最终形成了一个供金融科技女性导航的三重玻璃天花板。金融科技内部的不平等显然跨越了多个不同的轴心。我的博士研究将通过借鉴女权主义思想、后殖民主义和非殖民主义学术来批判性地与金融科技接触。具体地说，这项研究将被构建在问“什么”、“为什么”和“那又怎么样”的问题上。最初的重点是对性别和种族多样性的现状进行详细的分析，因为文献中仍然缺乏对当代金融科技多样性的详细量化，这一点令人担忧。这将是对参与的种族主义和性别障碍--原因--的审问。这项调查的一个重要方面将是调查任何地理影响：一个国家的文化和治理如何影响金融科技的多样性？我将开发这一工具，以检查投资行业的多样性和障碍(Dempsey，2021，Kanze等人，2017)。分析的最后部分将探讨这又如何；对更广泛的社会的影响。特别是，我想研究金融科技生态系统多样性和消费者金融包容性之间的联系(Chen等人，2021年；Bhagat和Roderick，2020年)。我还将把这一点与FemTech交织在一起，这是一个较新的、研究不足的现象(FemTech Analytics，2021；Faubion，2021)。研究将采取混合方法。我将制作一个全面的数据库，从1,000家金融科技公司的不同成长阶段、不同地区和子行业中挑选出来。每家公司将通过各种衡量标准进行评估，例如执行委员会的多样性和资金数额。然后将应用统计分析来调查特定的模式。此外，还将对金融科技生态系统中不同的个人进行100次半结构化采访。不分性别和不同背景的人都将接受面试，他们来自金融科技行业：从金融科技首席执行官到新创业公司、创始人，再到金融科技天使投资者和风险投资家。访谈的纳入反映了金融地理学家越来越多地采用定性方法，对该学科产生了积极影响(Wójcik，2021)。访谈将允许利用受访者自己的参照系来捕捉深入的生活经历(Seitz，2016；McDowell，1998)。这将分析从数字延伸到更有形、更抽象的东西，这对于理解金融科技中被边缘化的个人的日常生活体验是重要的。我的博士研究有很大潜力在学术界和非学术界产生深远影响。对金融科技的批判性审问是极其重要的，因为金融科技的优势越来越大。目前的注意力主要集中在将金融科技誉为充满创新和潜力的金融时代精神(卡利法，2021年；马基纳，2019年)。然而，这消除了造成普遍不平等的重大歧视性做法，特别是在性别和种族轴心上。

This doctoral research will apply a critical perspective to FinTech, furthering my research interests that began with my undergraduate dissertation. A significant paradox exists: FinTech is advancing financial services, whilst perpetuating discrimination against women (Sparks and Eckenrode, 2020; Clempner et al., 2020; Brett, 2018). The gender inequalities pervasive across FinTech are the result of discriminatory practices in both the financial (c.f., Ellingrud et al., 2021; McDowell, 1997) and technology (c.f., Nash and Moore, 2019; Massey, 1995) sectors, and within entrepreneurship (c.f. Rose, 2019; Balachandra et al., 2019; Kanze et al., 2017), culminating in a 'triple glass ceiling' for women in FinTech to navigate. The inequalities within FinTech clearly extend across multiple axes of difference. My doctoral research will critically engage with FinTech by drawing upon feminist thought, postcolonial, and decolonial scholarship. Specifically, the research will be structured on asking 'what', 'why', and 'so what'. The initial focus will be on producing a detailed analysis of what the current state of gender and racial diversity is because a detailed quantification of contemporary FinTech diversity remains alarmingly absent in the literature. This will progress to interrogating the racialised and gendered barriers to participation - the why. An important dimension of this enquiry will be investigating any geographical impact: how does the culture and governance of a country influence FinTech diversity? I will develop this to also examine the diversity and barriers within the investment industry (Dempsey, 2021, Kanze et al., 2017). The final part of the analysis will explore the so what; the impact on the wider society. In particular, I want to research the link between the FinTech ecosystem diversity and consumer financial inclusivity (Chen et al., 2021; Bhagat and Roderick, 2020). I will also interweave this with FemTech, a more recent, under-researched phenomenon (FemTech Analytics, 2021; Faubion, 2021).The research will take a mixed methods approach. I will produce a comprehensive database drawn from 1000 FinTech companies across different growth stages, geographies, and subsectors. Each company will be assessed across various measures, for example, executive committee diversity and funding amounts. Statistical analysis will then be applied to investigate particular patterns. 100 semi-structured interviews with a diverse range of individuals within the FinTech ecosystem will also be carried out. Individuals of all genders and from a range of backgrounds will be interviewed, drawn from across the FinTech industry: from FinTech CEOs to new starters, founders, and FinTech angel investors and venture capitalists. The inclusion of interviews is reflective of the increasing uptake of qualitative methods by financial geographers, positively influencing the discipline (Wójcik, 2021). Interviews will allow in-depth lived experiences to be captured , using the interviewee's own frame of reference (Seitz, 2016; McDowell, 1998). This stretches the analysis beyond the numerical into something more tangible and less abstract, which is important for understanding the day-to-day lived experiences for marginalised individuals in FinTech. There is significant potential for my doctoral research to have a profound impact within academic and non-academic circles. A critical interrogation of FinTech is extremely important because of FinTech's growing dominance. Current attention is largely centred on heralding FinTech as a financial zeitgeist full of innovation and potential (Kalifa, 2021; Makina, 2019). However, this elides the significant discriminatory practices that give rise to pervasive inequalities, notably across the axes of gender and race.