There is no doubt that the Treasury-backed Women in Finance Charter campaign has been a powerful engine of change when it comes to giving women better representation in senior management roles in financial services.
Six years after the campaign was launched, 1m people now work in the record 400+ financial services firms which have signed up to the charter which aims to give women a better chance to move up the career ladder.
Those are huge numbers and no-one can doubt the scheme’s success but recent signs of stagnation suggest it needs a bit more fuel in the tank.
Firms signing up to the charter pledge to support the, “progression of women into senior roles in financial services, set internal targets to improve diversity and publicly report on progress.”
It’s a public commitment to change and to giving women a better chance to move ahead. With a significant female workforce already financial services was seen as a good role model for the rest of British business and has already provided inspiration to others. The fact remains, however, that too many women of talent in the past were stuck in low level admin roles in financial services until the charter came along.
Bias and prejudice against women taking senior roles has faded away as critics have realised that those firms promoting women not only do well but prosper as a result. Promoting women is simply good for business.
I’ve always been against fixed quotas of any kind in business but I also believe that without initiatives like Women in Finance nothing will change and its aims to give women a better chance and more support are efforts anyone can believe in.
Some 20 years ago you would have had to look very hard to find a woman in senior management in financial services. Today about 1 in 3 senior managers are women and successful women managers, MDs and CEOs are becoming commonplace. We cover many stories of women’s promotion to senior roles on Financial Planning Today.
That’s great progress but until a 50/50 ratio is achieved it’s still not enough.
Aviva chief executive and Women in Financial champion Amanda Blanc warns that progress is “stagnating.” She says major change is tough but firms need to do much more to make substantial changes, not just pay lip service to the charter. She says representation of women has remained “flat” over the past year. That’s a concern.
Interestingly while 45 new firms have signed up to the charter this month, 14 have left the scheme. It’s not clear why some have left but achieving the targets can be challenging, particularly in smaller firms where HR support may be limited. It’s an indication that progress in this area but not be a given and more work is needed. It would be a great shame if all the progress so far begins to unravel.
In the Financial Planning profession it’s good to see several Financial Planning firms signing up to the charter recently. It’s a sign Financial Planning firms are beginning to embrace meaningful change.
There has been much progress in Financial Planning over the past 10 years and female Planners are becoming more common. Clients are, I suspect, already split 50/50 between men and women. There is no good reason why the staff at Financial Planning firms cannot share the same characteristics.
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