City gender parity ‘a long way off’ as women make up under a quarter of top promotions
Women made up less than a quarter of top promotions in financial services businesses in the past year in a sign the City is making slow progress towards gender parity, new data has revealed.
Of 5,815 senior level promotions and hires that took place in the financial services sector in the last year, just 24 per cent – 1,365 – were women, according to FCA data analysed by employment and partnership law specialists Fox & Partners.
The figures mark a minor uptick on last year’s figures when just 21 per cent of new senior positions were women, but Fox & Partners said progress had been slow and parity was “a long way off”.
“Women remain underrepresented at a senior management level but of more concern, amongst new entrants to senior management,” said Catriona Watt, Partner at Fox & Partners
“The list of promotions and new hires today are still heavily stacked against women, despite deliberate action to achieve diversity by many employers.”
Fox & Partners said improving gender diversity within senior levels of financial services firms will require “significant cultural changes” to create a far bigger pool of potential female leaders.
A pipeline of female senior managers would have to increase “dramatically” or it was doubtful gender parity at the senior level “in this generation”, Watt added.
“The percentage of new senior managers that are women will have to increase dramatically, or it is doubtful that we will reach gender parity at the senior level in this generation,” she said.