By Angie Newland – Angels Admin Support
I’m sure by now you will have heard about, or maybe even read for yourself, the Government
Treasury “Sexism in the City” Committee Report that came out on 5 th March 2024– 54 pages
covering the things that firms and the Regulator “should” be trying to improve on and making a
priority in regard to Non-Financial Misconduct.
Going by the results of this report Sadly, the majority have clearly not made any of this a priority.
And being a woman working in the Financial Services sector myself I am by no means shocked by the
things that I have read in this report – Am I disappointed by the lack of changes or the snail’s pace of
any changes made? = Yes – but am I shocked by this? – No!
Some of the statistics really do make it very clear that there is still an “old boys club” culture within
financial services firms and that leadership teams are not invested enough in making the cultural
changes that are needed to prevent the problems that result from having a bad workplace culture
and sexist attitudes.
The report was based on the Governments predecessor report from 2018, so they have revisited the
issues raised then to see if there have been any significant improvements in these areas.
Alongside the written evidence given in response to the governments call for evidence, and oral
evidence given in subsequent hearings, the Committee also hosted a private engagement event with
40 women who are currently working in financial services to ask them about their experiences.
The categories covered included Diversity and Inclusion, Barriers Facing Women, Pay, and Sexual
Harassment. I have pulled out the comments from the report that I wanted to highlight -
Diversity and Inclusion
“Many respondents to our inquiry continued to see cultural change as the most important factor for
improving diversity in financial services. Karen Northey, Director of Corporate Affairs at trade body
The Investment Association, told us “If I had to pick out the overarching driver of what needs to
change, it is culture. A lot of that is culture within individual firms. It starts at the beginning of
someone’s career”. Similarly, Baroness Helena Morrissey told us “[ … ] I am afraid that the big
problem remains culture”.
“Evidence to our inquiry suggested that improving diversity and inclusion was not treated by most
firms as a core business priority and was viewed more as a ‘nice to have’, with some describing firm-
level initiatives on diversity and inclusion as “box ticking” exercises and “virtue-signalling”.
Barriers Facing Women
“Fiona Mackenzie MBE, CEO of women’s advocacy group The Other Half, told us: “so many of the
women—fantastic, talented people—in the financial services industry are lost at the point that they
have children”. One attendee at our private roundtable event suggested that taking maternity leave
could have a worse effect on a woman’s career than an allegation of sexual misconduct would
have on a man’s”.
The Gender Pay Gap
“Professional services firm PwC UK told us: As at 2022/23, the average pay gap within financial
services was 23.7%, compared to 11.7% in all other industries. Progress since the start of gender pay
gap reporting in 2017 has also been slow, with the gap reducing by only 1.7% over six years for
financial services firms (1.1% for all other industries). Our calculation is that on this trajectory it will
take another 70 years for the gender pay gap to close in financial services”.
Sexual Harassment
“Dame Amanda Blanc, CEO of Aviva Plc and Women in Finance Charter Champion, told us: The
numbers, when we did the survey [ … ] showed that physical abuse was around 28% in financial
services, in the firms that we surveyed, and verbal abuse was 43%. Those are 10 percentage points
higher than in other industries. Clearly, there is an issue here”.
Having read through this very interesting report, (do read it if you have a chance!) and just from the
comments that I have highlighted, it is clear that firms and the Regulator are needing to do a lot of
work in regard to non-financial misconduct and sexism, as well as encouraging changes in these
areas.
How can it be acceptable for these things to still be happening?
Who is taking accountability?
Do you think the Regulator should intervene more and have better controls in place, like they are
always telling firms they should have?
Why isn’t more being done to hold individuals accountable?
The Government have made suggestions on what they think firms and the Regulator can do to make
improvements, and what they think needs to change, and be put in place, so let’s see if these will be
implemented by all parties involved - because they will certainly make a much-needed difference to
women in a business sector that is still struggling to bring itself out of the ages.
Read the full report here
https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/43731/documents/217019/default/
If you would like to see how we at Angels Admin Support can assist you with improving your culture,
DEI strategy, and generally making your workplace a much better place for women in financial
services to work, then please do get in touch, we would love to hear from you.
www.angelsadminsupport.co.uk
Email: angie@angelsadminsupport.co.uk