Maggie Shen (CAS ’26) felt daunted when she first joined Hoyalitics, Georgetown’s data analytics and consulting club.
“It seemed a little intimidating to me. I think at that point, there were a lot more males than females in the analytics department just because it’s like Computer Science— that’s something that’s very male-dominated usually,” she said.
However, once she spent more time in the organization, she felt the opposite
“Within the organization, I’ve definitely never felt at a disadvantage,” Shen said.
In fact, Shen would one day become the CEO of Hoyalitics—joining the organization’s last four CEOs, who have all been female.
Some of the most highly sought-after pre-professional organizations on Georgetown’s campus are consulting and finance organizations. Georgetown is home to the McDonough School of Business (MSB), ranked one of the top 30 best business schools in the nation. Within the MSB are 25 organizations sponsored by the MSB Student Advisory Board (MSAB), as well as dozens of consulting firms and finance clubs that are independent or affiliated with the Georgetown Student Activities Commission (SAC).
Despite women making up 57% of Georgetown’s undergraduate population, business-related fields (particularly finance and consulting) remain male-dominated. The MSB is made up of only 36.6% female students.
In light of these statistics, the Voice investigated whether the same gender disparities are true of financial and consulting clubs at Georgetown.
The Voice found that, despite some preconceived notions, the consulting and finance clubs interviewed did not appear to discriminate against women in the hiring process, based on application and membership data provided to the Voice. Rather, several women interviewed argued that much of the underrepresentation of women in these fields has to do with narratives surrounding which fields are male-dominated and which aren’t, which dissuade women from entering these areas at large.
The hiring processes for pre-professional organizations are rigorous and selective. They can include several rounds of written applications, interviews, and sometimes exams or projects. The Voice asked several of the financial and consulting organizations at Georgetown for a demographic breakdown of students who applied versus those who were accepted. The results we received are as follows:
Among the organizations interviewed, only the MSAB organizations (Hoyalytics and GCAP) demonstrated a higher male enrollment than female enrollment, possibly because the applicant pool mostly matched that of the MSB, which is already male-dominated.
The Voice was able to interview multiple women representing these organizations about their experiences within Georgetown’s financial and consulting culture, as well as the efforts their organizations are taking to create a more inclusive environment.
When asked if they had ever felt at a disadvantage or that they were treated differently within their respective organizations for being a woman, the results were almost unanimous—every interviewee said, in some shape or form, that they felt the opposite.
Mar Casajuana (SFS ’26), the current CEO of GGC, which works with small international nonprofits in developing countries, has felt a sense of belonging in the organization since she started. Casajuana highlighted GGC’s female-skewed applicant pool and accepted class (a 3:2 female to male ratio), which may contribute to why she has never really felt out of place in the organization.
“I don’t think anyone has perceived me as less capable or anything because I’m a woman,” Casajuana said.
Lindsey Mulcahy (MSB ’27) is the current director of professional development for GCAP, which is one of only two undergraduate clubs in the U.S. that works directly with private equity and venture capital firms. Mulcahy attributes some of her comfort to the fact that she’s been able to work alongside other women.
“I think for me, it’s been really rewarding because I think my biggest mentors were also women who were in these clubs before me and who sat in these leadership roles. So, I don’t know if it’s something that has necessarily been a roadblock for me,” she said.
Among the organizations interviewed, GCAP has the lowest female-to-male ratio, with only 32% of its admitted class being female.
“I think, obviously, it is a thing that exists; there are more men than women. But I don’t think that has ever stopped me from applying for a position or hindered my ability in any way to perform,” Mulcahy said.
While both Mulcahy and Casajuana claimed not to have experienced much discrimination within their organizations, interviewees argued that the true roadblocks for women in finance lie in outside perceptions of what the finance and consulting industries look like. Abigail Miles (MSB ’26), Mulcahy’s predecessor as GCAP’s professional development director, says that she’s seen her male peers overemphasize her gender..
“I was honestly a little surprised when I got to Georgetown by how much people cared about your gender, like, particularly in the business school,” Miles said. “I’ve definitely received my fair share of comments that have attributed my successes, whether that’s in one of these clubs or in my professional life, to the fact that I’m a woman.”
Miles’s statement is a testament to the perceived impacts of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in giving women an “advantage” in the workplace. Stereotypes in male-dominated workplaces can be related to an underlying assumption that women’s accomplishments have to do specifically with their gender.
According to Mulcahy, another issue is women not applying to these organizations. She pointed to GCAP’s applicant pool for this year, which was less than 30% female. Miles argued that sometimes, qualified women won’t apply because they don’t feel like they know enough yet.
“As women, we hold ourselves to a really high standard before we feel confident enough to engage in these environments and/or to apply to things,” she said.
Casajuana echoes this sentiment, pointing to the current climate of Georgetown organization’s recruitment process. There will often be multiple rounds of interviews, written applications, and even midterms containing financial knowledge in the cases of some organizations before a student is accepted as a member.
“The recruitment here in general is just too intense and cutthroat at times, and I think that just really can discourage people,” she said.
Anvitha Reddy (SFS ’26) is the CEO of HMFI, the largest student-run microfinance initiative in the country. Although she hasn’t experienced discrimination in HMFI, she does admit that the problem of gender disparities expands to a macro scale.
“If you look at investment banks and financial firms, the problem isn’t so much that they’re hiring less than 50% of their new analysts being women, it’s the retention of keeping women in the field for years and years to come,” she said.
At McKinsey, one of the “Big Three” consulting firms, women take up only 48% of entry-level jobs despite being 50.5% of the U.S. population. The percentage drops to 29% in corporate roles.
Reddy attributes this lack of retention to women missing the proper mentorship and role models within these businesses.
“I think it’s difficult as a woman entering a space where you see every single leadership figure being a man, and I think it’s kind of hard to see yourself staying there for a long time when you just look at just the numbers of who is above you,” she said.
According to Shen, the lack of female applicants to pre-professional organizations may be due to the inherent connections that some men may have and the idea that men might know other men in finance who can help them on their path. Mulcahy agrees.
“I think a lot of times it comes from a place of not knowing; sometimes these guys have their dads who are in finance or something like that,” she said.
Miles, however, attributes her success and desire to go into business to a female role model in her life: her mother.
“I had the opposite experience from most people, in that I came from a place where my mom was in the financial industry and is one of my role models,” she said. “And I had never felt that my chance or opportunity should be lessened because of my gender, because my mom had been very successful in the same industry.”
Despite the built-in barriers for women in business, many organizations at Georgetown have been taking steps to become more inclusive. Some organizations, such as Hoyalitics and GCAP, hold diversity events for different groups within their clubs. They’re continuing to expand the groups that they reach out to.
Reddy finds that within her community, diversity in gender and in interests often occurs naturally. HMFI is a 501c3 nonprofit that disperses small business loans to marginalized communities in D.C.
“I think HMFI is distinct from other financial organizations, maybe even on campus, but also the more traditional stereotypes you hear in finance fields specifically, just because I think it’s a social justice-motivated organization on campus,” she said. “All of my department directors, all of the people who have worked above me in HMFI, have been women.”
Reddy said that the organization’s orientation towards social justice guides its recruiting process. HMFI has a director of DEI who hosts a roundtable with prospective women each application cycle so that they can hear about the female experience in HMFI and feel welcomed into that atmosphere.
“I think that it has a lot to do with what our organization stands for, and the very nature of that is serving underrepresented and marginalized communities,” she said. “I also think that translates to when we hire new hires every semester or when we think about who we’re putting on our leadership team.”
Reddy said that she has felt welcomed into HMFI since the beginning.
“I went to an info session, and I saw myself and people like me presenting, so I didn’t really think twice about how I fit in HMFI,” she said.
Similarly, GCAP has a women-specific subgroup that allows women within the organization to better connect to outside firms.
“We have GCAP women, which is where we lead events for women specifically. Whether that’s in terms of diversity, recruiting at some of these larger firms, or just connecting with other girls within the business school,” Mulcahy said.
GGC looks to recruit from affinity groups, reaching out to organizations like Black House, Georgetown Scholars Program, and Community Scholars Program to host individual coffee chats and finance events. Casajuana explained that some students may feel less inclined to be involved in the recruitment process if they don’t know enough about it, so she and her team work to alleviate some of those trepidations.
“The way that people can do their best work is if they’re in a comfortable setting and so that’s something that really guides our hiring process, creating a comfortable space so that everyone can give us their best work,” she said.
GGC also does bias training for all interviewers and sets up a mentor-mentee system for members once they are accepted. While this process is a great way of getting everyone more comfortable, they are still outliers to typical recruitment.
“I think GGC’s interview process and recruitment culture is a bit different from the MSB ones in that I think a lot of them are a lot more cutthroat. And I think that’s sometimes because of the nature of business and finance—that is how real-life interviews work,” Casajuana said.
According to Miles and Mulcahy, despite these initial successes, more work remains to be done. Mulcahy says that clubs like GCAP, which put women in leadership positions, are a good place to start.
“I think just like having women in these positions of leadership that are able to kind of act as the example for more girls,” she said. “If a girl has a question or is nervous about applying, she can come to us and see us sitting in these roles, and be able to see that there is a path forward.”
Similarly, Miles advocates for a culture of mentorship, especially from women to women.
“I think women need to have the confidence that they are equally as qualified as men, regardless of if they buy stocks or keep up with crypto as much as some men might. I still think women could be and should be interested in finance. I think it’s a huge part of our world, and they should be encouraged to do that,” she said.
As the financial industry and Georgetown’s pre-professional clubs work to close the gender gap, Mulcahy says that women should still feel confident in their gender by seeing it as an asset rather than a crutch.
“If you’re the only girl in the room, good,” Mulcahy said. “You stand out more then.”
