Twenty years ago Marla Shepard was interviewed by CreditUnion Times for an article (CU Times, May 7, 1990) onthe challenges and struggles of female CEOs in the credit unionindustry.

Today, Shepard still commands her post at the head of the samecredit union. In 1990, Shepard was the CEO of $120 million SantelFederal Credit Union in San Diego. Through a series of mergers,Santel has become the $1.8 billion California Coast Federal CreditUnion. In her 20 years as a CEO, Shepard said the game for womenCEOs in the credit union industry has changed quite a bit.

At the time of the first article, it was very uncommon for awoman to be the CEO of a large credit union, but now the top creditunions in San Diego have women CEOs, she said.

In the 1990 article, Shepard said one of the challenges womenCEOs faced was that networking and “rubbing elbows” with other CEOswasn't as easy for women as men. CEOs often used sports activities,such as golf, to meet, and men didn't always feel comfortableincluding women in those sports activities, she said.

“I felt a little left out, but I don't anymore. There was agroup of credit union CEOs that did things together like play golfand racquetball, and at the time there weren't enough women CEOs tostart our own network. I missed having the opportunity to bounceideas off folks, which happened a lot then since the atmospherewasn't as competitive as it is now,” Shepard explained.

Networking and sharing weren't the only opportunities women CEOsmissed on out at the time either. In the 1990 article, Shepard saidthat on two occasions head hunters contacted her about a CEOposition, but she was confidentially told that the board ofdirectors wanted a male. She said her board was proud to have awomen as CEO in a time when most were male.

When Shepard was head of Santel, 80% of her employees werefemale. Now, she said, there is much more of a mix of men and womenemployees.

One of the reasons Shepard sees for the mix in employees is thatas credit unions grew, opportunities were created to hire for morespecialized positions, such as a mortgage loan officer, whichattracted more men.

“I don't know if I can speak for all credit unions, but it iscertainly true for larger credit unions,” she said.

For women now, it is also easier to progress up the ladder to aCEO position, Shepard said.

“Women see other women climbing up the ladder to CEO all aroundthem, which is really awesome. There are a lot more women mentors,and the struggle of not having other women to share ideas with hasimproved significantly.”

One of the opportunities for women CEOs to share ideas now isthe Global Women's Leadership Initiative, a network that connectswomen around the world to credit union resources that was startedby the World Council of Credit Unions.

Judy McCartney, former CEO of Orange County's Credit Union inSanta Ana, Calif., who retired January 2008, still participates inthe Global Women's Leadership Initiative in her retirement.

For McCartney, women's initiatives have always been somethingshe's assionate about, so when the World Council started to discussforming an international women's group, McCartney joined in despiteher pending retirement. Prior to joining the Global Women'sLeadership Initiative, McCartney was on the board of Freedom fromHunger, an international group that teaches finance to small groupsof women around the world.

“It was remarkable what women could do with small amounts ofmoney even with no education or ability to read or write,”McCartney said of her work at Freedom from Hunger. “I also promotedwomen in management in Orange County's CU. The credit unionindustry is filled with women, although usually at lower paid jobsat smaller credit unions.”

The role women play in the credit union industry has changedover the years, McCartney said, in the aspect of bringing creditunions to every country, but in the United States things have notchanged dramatically.

“There are more CEOs in large credit unions who are women.Traditionally, there were 8% women in large credit unions, thatnumber is up to 12%, a 50% increase if you want to spin it, but itis still low,” she explained.

McCartney did highlight some of the strides that have been madein the industry over the years for women. She named Stan Hollen, EdCallahan and Dave Chatfield as examples of CEOs in the industry whopromoted women. One of the first women to run a large credit unionwas Ludelle Murrow, CEO of Provident Credit Union in RedwoodShores, Calif. According to McCartney, she was an innovative leaderwho started a child care facility at the credit union, which wasvery forward thinking at the time.

Twelve to 15 years ago, Grace Mayo, CEO of Telesis CommunityCredit Union in Chatsworth, Calif., started a group similar to whatShepard said she was missing all those years ago. The group, whichwas for credit union CEOs and senior women, mushroomed into theWomen's Leadership Symposium, McCartney said. The symposium nowmeets annually all over the United States for women CEOs of thelargest credit unions.

For the Global Women's Leadership Initiative, the first forumwas held last summer in Barcelona.

“Financially, this was probably the worst time to start anythingthat required donations to keep it going. There was support inspite of the financial problems in the credit union industry. Therewas support among people in credit unions from vendors to CEOs,”McCartney said.

The best part of the forum for McCartney was getting paired upwith a woman partner from the other side of the globe. McCartneywas paired with a woman named Susan from Kenya who is a singlemother of three, a CEO of a credit union and who recently graduatedwith her master's degree. McCartney is working with her to get herto the United States for the first time for WOCCU's meeting in LasVegas in July.

Another story from the forum that touched McCartney was from awoman in India named Chetna. She told a story of how she met withthe Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at their request. At themeeting, Chetna only had one person in her corner supporting heridea for loaning money to women who live in the remote areas ofIndia so they can buy gold to use as immediate credit in case of anemergency. Later, she found out her one supporter was WarrenBuffet.

Down the road, organizations like the Global Women's LeadershipInitiative will continue to help woman pave roads in the creditunion movement by creating more connections, McCartney said.

“Only good will come of this group. It is certainly a globalworld now and through the bringing together of women, there isalways a bond created that I believe will create more and moreconnections around the planet. Sarah [Canepa] Bang, CEO ofFinancial Service Centers Cooperative, was the first to addinternational shared branches to the U.S. network, which was apioneering decision at that time. Hopefully, this will provide aforum to bring some of those types of acts to the forefront.”

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