There has been some improvement in workplace culture for women working in financial services since 2018, but “misogynistic mindsets” remain widespread, the Treasury select committee has discovered.
The committee has today (17 January) published a summary of a roundtable discussion with 40 women from 30 firms in the financial services sector, held in November last year.
Attendees said they felt there had, overall, been a reduction in levels of overt sexism in the workplace, such as “office banter”.
But behaviours have instead become more “underhand and pernicious”.
The social changes that resulted from the #MeToo movement do not appear to have translated into financial services, where attendees thought sexual harassment “remains commonplace”.
Most attendees had either directly experienced sexual harassment or knew of colleagues who had.
Many incidents of sexual harassment were reported to have taken place outside the office, for example at conferences and drinks events or while on work trips.
Behind the Headlines: Is the City sexist?
Several attendees highlighted a particular concern with the drinking culture that still prevailed in parts of the industry, noting that non-drinkers often felt pressured to attend drinking events to “fit in”.
These kinds of events were often where the worst behaviours towards women had taken place.
Male colleagues who witnessed inappropriate behaviour towards female colleagues were often said to be privately supportive of the victim but would rarely call out the bad behaviour or take steps to intervene at the time.
The emphasis was on helping women to avoid the known “bad actors”, rather than tackling the inappropriate behaviour itself.
Most of the women who had reported cases of inappropriate behaviour or sexual harassment (or knew of someone who had) reported a very negative experience of the process.
Human resources (HR) departments were viewed by attendees as “ineffective” in how they dealt with sexual harassment cases.
Attendees thought that HR’s role was “clearly to protect the firm rather than support the victim”.
Last July, the committee launched an inquiry into “sexism in the city”, which is looking at the barriers faced by women in financial services.
In September, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority opened a joint consultation looking at how diversity and inclusion can improve outcomes for markets and consumers.
In particular, diversity of thought can help reduce groupthink, support healthy work cultures, improve understanding of and provision for diverse consumer needs and unlock diverse talent.
The consultation closed in mid-December and the regulators are currently going through responses.
It will publish a policy paper on its findings later this year.
