Women in Financial Services

We're not taking advantage of all available talent. This is a huge drawback for the sector

There is too much focus on trying to make females want to become leaders and too little focus on making structural changes and assessing the culture

Our growth is predicated on understanding diverse markets. Diversity is not just the right thing to do from a values perspective, it’s also good business. It helps us to understand those segments of the population…anticipate their needs and better deliver to them

Gender diversity issues will not be solved by only women. Men need to be (and want to be) brought into the conversation and given the same opportunities

Boosting awareness and participation at the top end would ideally have a knock on effect through the executive and management levels, but unfortunately we don't see much evidence of this at the moment.

Female mentors do appear to have a larger number of people to mentor than the average senior man. It becomes a numbers game as female mentors are so few but it is also a great opportunity to make a real difference to our talent pipeline.

If you had more diversity then you might have taken control of some of the more extreme views in a better way. But it is the diversity which is key, not just adding women

Senior women in industry often gain a lot of media attention [more than equivalent men], not all of which is welcome or productive, and this can be distracting

Until women achieve critical mass at leadership level, things will not truly change

Decisions are better when people who have multiple experiences and points of view come together, because no one person, however intelligent they are, will have the answer

I think it is not a gender issue per se but due to the unconscious bias, we tend to be more comfortable mentoring and providing feedback to those who are like us, as opposed to actively going out looking for people with different skillsets

Women are far more trusting of their own decisions and intuition, therefore are not afraid of calculated risk taking

The suitability criteria might not be right. It’s about broadening our horizons when looking at candidates

I think technology will play a key part in the future workplace. Firms will need to figure out how to leverage technology to foster strong engagement and provide flexibility – in particular for women.

If we really want to build leaders of the future, they better be in those roles that we think are going to be differentiators for the future success in the institutions

Post the financial crisis, shareholders are looking for a different culture in financial services. Part of that cultural transformation will require a different model of leadership

'Own the way you work' is a flexibility initiative not focused on gender but on the individual's need for flexibility, e.g. employees can pick up kids from school, work from home … The result of the new flexible working conditions can have a significant increase in productivity and quality

In financial services, to make a change we have to play the numbers game

If I take three years out of work and return three years behind an equally able peer who stayed for those three years, I can accept that as fair. But if I was to take three years off and return five years behind an equally able peer or with limited career progression, I doubt I would accept that

By having this flexibility we're able to retain and attract a diverse workforce. Some are skeptical; this is a cultural and mind set change. We need to improve the skills of managers to work with employees who are not necessarily physically in the office all the time

One of the most important things we can do is to help women see that there is an on-ramp back into the industry and support them when they take it. Bringing experienced women back to the industry is critical to building a pipeline for leadership roles

Financial services tends to be a very meritocratic industry because performance is transparent. This allows performers, irrespective of gender, to advance and that should be seen as a positive

When you're the only woman in the room, you feel like you're representing womankind

It's the classic example of men doing business down at the pub. Men meet with their suppliers, colleagues and business groups in certain places and times that are not always convenient for women. It's perfect for them since they've designed it for themselves but women get excluded

We have formalised the different options/stages of career paths, clearly stating the fact-based criteria for promotion. Hence, there is reduced subjectivity when assessing the performance of an individual

Women in senior roles who take leave for maternity or other family care can cause resentment amongst peers. It's not easy to fill leadership roles in the interim and people have to work hard to cover for them. If both women and men were doing this then it would become a 'parent / career thing' rather than a 'gender thing'

There is a lot of testosterone in Wall Street firms and this has had a spill over effect to other financial sector firms

We’ve created a robust recruitment framework that mitigates against unconscious bias creeping into recruitment and promotion decisions. Unconscious Bias training is mandatory at the FCA and we must map out the competencies required for job roles and use standardized questions at interview stage

I have not encountered the sexual prejudice in the finance industry that I had experienced in the metals and mining industry, where I worked as a young consultant

When we don’t have to talk about it [gender diversity], the battle has been won

If a woman is willing to build her career, she can do it, there is no glass ceiling in Russia