Sallie Krawcheck, a longtime advocate for women in finance, sparked a debate among hundreds of readers on LinkedIn with an observation that Morgan Stanley’s newly appointed managing directors were almost all male.

Krawcheck posted a photo showing 46 names of financial advisors in the firm’s wealth management division with the comment, “Feels like something is missing from this list of new Managing Directors ... what could it be?”

Only three of the people were women.

Readers posted more than 490 comments that reflected a wide range of opinions. Some expressed disappointment with how few women were promoted to a higher rank, despite their ability to pull in millions of assets as financial advisors; others said Krawcheck’s post was paranoid or her analysis was incomplete. One reader pointed out that the list of managing directors across the bank had more women listed than the wealth management list implied.

Promotions for financial advisors at Morgan Stanley are based on revenue over a period of three years, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

The wealth management division elevated more women than the just the advisors. About 40 percent of employees promoted in the overall group, which includes operations and legal staff, were women, said spokeswoman Christine Jockle.

Global Banks
The debate on Krawcheck’s post may be a preview of what’s to come as Morgan Stanley, along with other big global banks, are preparing to disclose the difference between compensation for their U.K.-based male and female employees. The U.K. government is requiring companies with 250 or more employees to report the gap between what men and women make on average, a measure that often reflects the fact that men earn more because they’re over-represented in higher-paying roles.

For example, Barclays Plc filed its required disclosures last week, becoming the first big global bank to do so. It revealed that women earn on average 48 percent less than men do, a figure that partly reflects the fact that less than one-third of its senior managers are women, according to company figures.

Krawcheck, who competed with Morgan Stanley when she ran the wealth management arm of Bank of America Corp., now runs Ellevest, a female-focused online investing platform. Krawcheck was also previously head of global wealth management at Citigroup Inc. Krawcheck will be a keynote speaker at FA's Invest in Women conference April 30-May 2 in Houston.

This article was provided by Bloomberg News.