Emma Ann HughesJun 15 2018

MPs' alpha male lecture won't change advice industry culture

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MPs' alpha male lecture won't change advice industry culture
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This week MPs held up a mirror to the financial services industry, claiming it showed massive gender disparity and asked the industry to make some changes.

The Treasury select committee argued bonus negotiations in financial services firms perpetuated an “alpha-male culture... where it’s perceived that men argue more forcefully for bonuses than women”.

Alongside this claim the committee suggested bonuses should be assessed in a formulaic way against clear objectives and also called on more senior men to begin working flexibly to lead by example.

It also recommended extending the reporting of the gender pay gap to partners and subsidiaries and a review of promotion practices to remove unconscious biases and groupthink.

The gender pay gap needs to be addressed. Nobody should be paid more just because they regularly pee standing up.

Work cultures must also start to reflect what everyone – not just women – need and recognise that more time spent tied to the desk in an office does not necessarily mean more and better work done.

If flexible working, remote working, meetings via video conference do not result in reduced quality and amount of work produced then these are options that should be up for discussion regardless of gender.

Better recruitment processes to remove any gender bias can only be a good thing too.

But ultimately, is the picture of financial services painted by the Treasury select committee an accurate one?

The picture painted of a financial services profession dominated by ‘alpha males’ by the Treasury select committee certainly will have done little to encourage women to want to enter this industry.

I don’t think I would want to enter an industry where there had to be stock quotas for the number of women that should be recruited into it.

I want to work in an industry where I know if I have a job it is because I was the best person for it.

I firmly believe things are changing for the better in financial services – and, specifically, the financial advice sector.

While the bulk of advisers at a James Hay dinner I attended in the City this week were male, the make-up of the diners wasn’t because of a job for the boy’s culture that prevails today.

It is a remnant of the fact 15 years ago many women were turned off an industry where conferences had scantily clad burlesque entertainers as part of the evening’s entertainment.

Those days are long gone – hopefully.

Today there are many fabulous female financial advisers coming up the ranks and a recognition that the technology in this industry makes it one better suited to women requiring flexibility than many other professions.

emma.hughes@ft.com