Nine CEOs took part in a recent Citywire discussion about workplace culture with the financial sector. Just one of them was a woman, says Jenny Segal (pictured) , a seasoned business leader, actuary and workplace culture expert with over 25 years of experience in investment markets. In this blog celebrating International Women’s Day, Jenny delves into why this phenomenon in financial services is still alive and kicking.
Is it really that tough out there? Well, Anne Richards’, Michelle Scrimgeour’s and Hanneke Smits’ recent departures do not shine a beacon of hope on the path to gender parity, despite analysis continuing to indicate that female-led companies outperform those led by men across a range of measures: from profitability to stock price performance and employee satisfaction, and even to time taken for VC-backed firms to go public.
Similar inequities abound further down the food chain, with the ONS’s 2024 report revealing the UK’s average gender pay gap of 7% increased to 10.2% for finance and investment analysts.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent
There is a widespread societal phenomenon that afflicts us all, yet we do not notice it until it is spelt out to us. We unconsciously assume that men are competent until they mess up, whilst women have to prove their worth for us to have confidence in them: they are guilty until proven innocent. Perhaps not surprising then that 54% of women are affected by imposter syndrome compared with just 38% of men. Throw into the mix the well-documented Male Hubris, Female Humility Problem whereby males persistently overestimate their own intelligence whilst females underestimate theirs. (There is no gendered difference in intelligence) and it is not surprising that women are not afforded the authority that they merit.
Mansplaining, not being listened to, being spoken over, contributing ideas which are ignored until they are adoptedby a male colleague, being assumed to be less senior: injustices snowball and women are overlooked for promotion, giving rise to the gender pay gap, higher rates of industry defection and very few women progressing to the ranks ofsenior leadership.
Gender inequity in financial services matters. It has a ripple effect on society morebroadly. With fewer women in the industry, financial products are not designedfor, nor marketed at, women, and fewer women receive financial advice. So they do not invest well or wisely, whichaccentuates and perpetuates the long-term gender wealth gap.
Making It Fair
The good news is that there is plenty we can do to drive effective change. The starting point is to establish a baseline, collecting the data to determine the extent to which your business is rewarding men and women differently. Whilst conducting a gender audit of pay is clearly an important part of this, it is not enough on its own: it is crucial to ensure that women and men are graded at equivalent levels for equivalent work. Without this, your gender pay gap might look fine even when your female employees are being paid less than their true male peers. Publish your findings and encourage your competitors to do the same and make it a business imperative to achieve parity over a reasonable timeframe. At the same time, establish structured, fair promotion and hiring criteria, training managers to recognise unconscious bias so they are self-aware enough to notice when they’re guilty until proven innocent tendencies creep in.
Cultural Change
Changing our mindsets can be really helpful. Take a step back and recognise diversity as a valuable business asset that ushers in innovation and new dimensions of cognitive reasoning, empathy and attitude to risk –all incredibly important in financial services. So whilst you are creating a fair approach to recognition and reward, think about creating a workplace culture in which both genders can thrive. Whilst women continue to be saddled with more than their fair share of the domestic and child-rearing duties (and surveys repeatedly demonstrate this to be the case), maintaining flexible working is really important. Encourage shared parental leave. Create an environment of trust. Don’t micromanage. People can shirk as easily when they are in the office as when they are at home and they should be judged on the quality of their work, not when or where they are working.
Then take steps to encourage your female workforce through intentional mentorship –set up a programme if you don’t already have one. Train men on how to be allies; peer pressure is very powerful so calling out bias live, when it is actually happening, is a simple and very effective method to showcase which behaviours are unacceptable. And ensure your senior women recognise the valuable part they can play as role models. You can embed this in your working practices by including mentorship, role modelling and allyship as explicit measurables when setting your team’s annual objectives.
Financial Inclusion
Think about how you can adapt your products and marketing to appeal to the female customer demographic, and how their life experiences –marriage, motherhood, divorce, retirement –impact their financial journeys. There is still significant societal gender stereotyping, and the financial services industry has an important role to play and, arguably, even a moral duty, to counter this with messaging that inspires women with the confidence to take control of their finances, promoting financial autonomy. From investing to saving for retirement, managing debt, arranging insurance and access to emergency funds: take market research soundings, include women in your product development teams and train them as financial advisers. Paying focused attention to a neglected demographic that often has significant purchasing power makes serious commercial sense, as well as being the right thing to do.
Alignment of Gender Equity and The Bottom Line
There is a lot of noise about DEI which is diverting attention from the beautiful alignmentof interests that arises when organisations get it right. A gender-balanced financial services industry will innovate more, have a more balanced approach to risk and enable a more empathetic workplace
culture in which employees are more motivated, as well as creating products that appeal to a much-neglected majority of the population. So by introducing fairer gender policies, companies will perform better whilst righting a very long-standing social injustice. Proactively dismantling gender biases and building a more inclusive future isn’t just about doing the right thing –it makes great business sense too.
Jenny Segal, workplace culture expert, speaker, and author dedicated to creating environments people want to work in.http://www.jennysegal.co.uk/#:~:
