Experience: Chair of the Treasury Select Committee Harriett Baldwin had a 20-year career in the City
Our financial services sector is world-beating and well-paid. It’s a part of the economy that benefits women and men across the UK and its growth, competitiveness and profits rely on attracting and retaining the very best people.
I enjoyed a successful 20-year career in the City before politics, so I’m no stranger to the issues which affect women in financial services.
Much has changed since, but you only need to look at the woefully low number of female chief executives in finance to see that there is room for improvement.
In 2016, when I was City Minister, I shone a light on the issue by launching the Women in Finance Charter, which now has over 400 signatories covering more than 1m employees.
Before my time on the Treasury select committee, in 2018, it had found there was a toxic alpha-male culture in the City that made it difficult for talented women to prosper.
Now, with me as chair, our committee decided to look again in order to see what has (or indeed, hasn’t) changed in the last six years.
Disappointingly, what we’ve discovered is that the answer is not much. In fact, progress is moving at a snail’s pace.
We spoke with industry leaders, regulators, women’s advocacy groups and Government ministers to understand what they were doing about it. What was really crucial, though, was to understand the reality.
We hosted a private event with women who had worked across all levels and areas of financial services.
Their evidence was anonymous, enabling them to share honest experiences of working in a male-dominated industry without fear of reprisals.
We were appalled. Women described their experiences of misogyny, sexual harassment and bullying, up to and including serious sexual assault and rape.
We received particularly disturbing testimony regarding non-disclosure agreements, which we were told firms were using to cover up sexual harassment.
Not only does this silence victims of abuse, it also leaves the door open for those responsible to continue abusing with impunity.
I feel strongly that businesses need to take responsibility for tackling sexism in the City. Boardrooms and senior managers shouldn’t have to look to the Government or regulators before they act to give women a fair deal.
If boardrooms became aware of an employee siphoning off profits, would they wait for an authority figure to tell them that was wrong and that they should act? Of course not.
It’s not all doom and gloom. We did see some incremental improvement on issues such as the gender pay gap and female representation in senior roles. But it’s not enough.
A recent study by BlackRock showed that gender-balanced firms outperform their peers, which shows the competitive advantage on offer when efforts are made to attract and retain great people.
Some progress has been made but there is much still to do. The City must be able to draw on the widest possible pool of talent and boardrooms need to play their role in rooting out the sexist culture which still taints some corners of the industry.
Failing to do so is not only immoral, but it’s bad for business.
Harriett Baldwin is the Conservative MP for West Worcestershire and Chair of the Treasury Select Committee.
