The City is failing to fully tackle the “alpha male” culture discriminating against women, a senior MP suggested on Tuesday.
Harriett Baldwin, chairman of the Commons Treasury Committee, said some submissions to its inquiry pointed to “little evidence of a much-needed cultural change” in the Square Mile.
She was speaking ahead of banking, insurance, investment management and hedge funds giving evidence to the committee on Wednesday afternoon for its probe into Sexism in the City.
Ms Baldwin stressed that an earlier inquiry in 2018 found that women working in the financial services industry still faced a number of barriers.
“They lost out on bonuses because of an alpha-male culture and were often passed over for promotions based on assumptions they were not career-focused because they sometimes sought more flexible working patterns,” she told The Standard.
She added: “Industry and the government told us they would address those concerns. They said that firms would do better – acknowledging that greater diversity would challenge groupthink and ensure the sector was utilising the talent pool of brilliant women struggling to get a foot in the door.
“Five years on, the Treasury Committee is setting out to discover if anything has changed.”
The MPs had so far discovered a “mixed picture,” she explained.
“There appears to have been some progress in implementing workplace initiatives, but we have seen some suggesting there’s little evidence of a much-needed cultural change. Shockingly, at the current rate of progress it would take until close to the end of this century to eliminate the gender pay gap in financial services.”
The Equality and Human Rights Commission told the committee that sexual harassment in the City “remains prevalent” despite existing legal protections and industry commitments to tackle it, with women mainly the victims.
The MPs also heard how non-disclosure agreements were allegedly being used to silence victims of such misconduct.
While there had been progress in getting more women into senior executive roles, many others were still struggling to progress their career into the middle management ranks.
The Financial Conduct Authority stressed that how firms respond to complaints from staff can “impact their culture”.
The City watchdog added: “Tolerance of inappropriate behaviours can lead to cultures where people do not feel safe to speak up and raise issues.”
