We’d love it if we never have to write an editorial like this again.

In banking today, it’s all about succession, and who shows up. In the last several decades, an increasing number of the people who have shown up in the banking industry are women, who now comprise up to 80 percent of the banking industry’s workforce.

We’ve been hearing their stories as we put together our custom publications. One thing jumps out at us, and that’s how long it has taken some of the industry’s senior women to get to the C-suite. Granted, not every woman wants to be the president of the bank, but we were struck at how many women who started their banking careers in the era of the highly-acclaimed TV series Mad Men took so long to get where they are.

Back in the day, there were no women tellers. Women were secretaries, and one of our longtime women bankers, who started her career in 1961, told us that the secretaries where she worked were ‘allowed’ to serve as tellers, as long as they were willing to sacrifice their lunch hours to do so.

It wasn’t much better 20 years later. One senior bank executive, who has excelled in commercial lending, recalls an early career rebuff that drove her away from banking for a period of two years. The personnel director told her he couldn’t hire her because ‘women don’t make good lenders.’  That turned out to be two years of lost opportunity for the institution for which she could have worked.

There are still barriers that need to be overcome, most specifically the unequal division of family obligations between men and women. Women in high positions are realistic about the way this slows down a career trajectory. As Lily Tomlin so famously said in her one-woman play, “Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe,” you can have it all – just not all at once.

We’re seeing signs that things may be changing for real. Women’s networking groups these days accentuate strategic planning over the dress-for-success mindset of the Reagan era, where the fashion look was broad, ‘power’ shoulders, with a fluffy scarf at the neck to neutralize any perceived threat.

Since the financial crisis, banking has started getting more serious about strengthening its talent pool. There’s an increasing meeting of the minds on succession issues and sustainability. Bank leaders who care about the soundness of their organizations, and who also want the best prospects for the people who work for them, are recognizing the contributions of women in ways not seen when most of the women now in leadership roles started their careers.

In banking as in other industries, there’s not only room for talent – there’s a genuine need for it. So when talent shows up, it’s an opportunity not to be missed. So don’t make us say it again.