Do women in financial services have the same chance of getting ahead as men?
A Financial Times analysis finds little improvement in recent years — women have similar rates of progression as men to middle management positions, but data shows limited progress further up the leadership ladder.
Since 2017, the proportion of women working in financial services globally has remained static at about 44 per cent and the share in senior roles has nudged up only slightly from 28 per cent to just below 30 per cent.
But there are some bright spots that suggest how change might be achieved, from the availability and affordability of childcare to workplace flexibility.
LinkedIn data shows Singapore is performing better than other countries at promoting women into senior positions: the gender split for financial services staff remains equal until middle management. It skews in favour of men at more senior levels but less dramatically than elsewhere — women make up 44 per cent of directors and 40 per cent of vice-presidents.
Lagging behind is Australia, where women account for more than half the entry-level workforce but less than a third of directors. India and the Netherlands also perform poorly: the share of women in finance declines by more than 40 per cent between entry and director levels.
Australia and the Netherlands rank in the top 10 most expensive countries for childcare globally, while support in Singapore is more accessible.
Another factor appears to be the disruptive force of fintech.
Historically, a lack of flexible working arrangements has been an impediment for women in the workplace.
“As one of the leading fintech powerhouses globally, Singapore’s financial services industry has rapidly embraced flexible working hours [and] technology-enabled remote work,” says Thio Tse Gan at Deloitte south-east Asia, adding that sectors such as digital banking will further improve female representation over the next decade.
In the UK, fintech firms have been some of the most successful at promoting female employees, according to an FT analysis of government data, although the wider finance sector has barely improved since 2017.
PayPal has more women at mid-level than in junior roles. Challenger banks Monzo and Starling have a smaller drop-off in their female workforce at higher pay bands than most larger traditional UK banks. At NatWest, there is a 52 per cent fall in the female workforce between the bottom and top pay quartiles, 70 per cent higher than the decline at Monzo.
Hybrid working at the digital bank was the norm before the pandemic, and benefits now include time off for fertility treatments and support for menopause or pregnancy loss.
But how companies present success can be misleading. Putting women in the most visible senior positions can sometimes encourage a company to think the job is done, when inequality still exists lower down the pay scale. In some countries, women are better represented in the C-suite than less senior leadership positions.
LinkedIn data across all UK sectors shows women make up 26 per cent of senior executive roles and only 23 per cent of vice-president roles. In Australia, 30 per cent of C-suite roles are filled by women, compared with 24 per cent of VP positions.
Even if well intentioned, this focus on representation at the very top may not have the desired outcome, says gender bias researcher Amy Diehl. “At token levels, women are often isolated, and their voices are discounted . . . True gender equality means hiring and promoting women at the same levels as men.”
Tara Ryan at Monzo agrees. “Everyone talks about the gender pay gap and the senior roles. But you need to think about the whole pipeline and getting parity throughout the organisation.”
So what can be done? Amber Stephenson, management professor at Clarkson University, says financial services companies must take a “comprehensive approach” to improving the promotion of women, with changes ranging from flexible work policies to a culture of valuing results over face time.
