Your IndustryNov 3 2017

MPs told of cultural barrier for women in financial services

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MPs told of cultural barrier for women in financial services

Women do not want to get involved in senior financial services roles because of the culture, according to the government’s women in finance champion.

Speaking to the Treasury Select Committee, Jayne-Anne Gadhia, who is also chief executive of Virgin Money, said she had been surprised by this.

She said: “Overwhelmingly women said the reason they didn’t want to get involved with financial services at a senior level is because of the culture.

“I thought childcare would be an issue and it was hardly mentioned.

“What we saw is there is definitely a culture of having to be present. The idea that I need to be at my desk at 7 o’clock in the morning and 10 o’clock at night.

“In particular in financial services one of the things women really dislike is the bonus culture which means people have to argue how well they have or have not performed.”

She said men are more likely to “bang the table” and demand a bonus which means they tend to be skewed towards them.

Ms Gadhia added that she had found a similar issue at her own company, where the distribution of bonuses was skewed towards men.

When she confronted some of the managers about this, she said many of them had not considered the issue in this way.

Ms Gadhia added that there was a macro-economic benefit to having more gender equality in financial services.

She said: “The return on equity of financial services companies that have gender balance at board and senior level is 2 percentage points higher than those that don’t.

“I continue to be surprised and uncomfortable that we, the UK, continue to lag behind other countries in terms of productivity.

“Driving gender equality will undoubtedly drive improvements in productivity. That’s something we should all aspire to.”

Ms Gadhia also said she had first-hand experience of these issues after working at Norwich Union in the 1980s when she was lacking the “thick skin and a load of bull” to lead a sales team.

She also told the committee that during her time working at Royal Bank of Scotland there was a “very male” culture and that one woman told her she was expected to have sex with her boss.

Anna Sofat, chief executive of London-based Addidi Wealth, said: "I thin culture is definitely an issue. The culture in financial services has tended to be rather sales-focused and target driven which has not been conducive to a more inclusive environment.

"It's the same with every other diversity. If something has worked before you have a tendency to go for it again."

damian.fantato@ft.com