The Treasury Committee has launched a new inquiry to examine the barriers faced by women in financial services, focusing on sexism and misogyny in the City of London institutions.

In the latest inquiry into sexism in the City, MPs will examine the progress made in removing gender pay gaps and what role companies, the government and regulators should play in combatting sexual harassment and misogyny in the industry.

This follows the Committee’s previous 2018 report, Women in Finance, which found that, among other issues, the presenteeism culture and bonus culture in the financial services sector remains a deterrent for women. 

For this new inquiry, the Treasury Committee welcomes evidence on progress in removing the barriers to women entering and advancing their careers across industry, including progress to financial services firms’ boards, including executive roles.

The number of women in Britain’s boardrooms among the UK’s biggest listed companies has risen above 40% for the first time, according to the latest data from FTSE Women Leaders Review. Today, only 10 of the UK’s 350 largest listed companies still have all-male executive teams. The majority of boardroom roles women have earned, however, tend to be in non-executive roles rather than the executive positions where the real power and influence lies.

Among the top 10 best performers for female board representation in the FTSE100, none were in financial services. But within the poorest performers section was financial services company St James’s Place, with 30% female representation.

Other areas of inquiry will also include the impact of the Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter, progress on implementing the Treasury Committee’s 2018 recommendations and improvement on removing gender pay gaps in financial services and in implementing measures to address such gaps.

Britain’s finance industry had an average gender pay gap of 22.7% in 2022-23, only marginally below the 23% reported in 2021-22. Last year marked the fifth year of UK mandatory gender pay gap reporting for companies employing more than 250 employees. The top five gender pay gaps by sector are all within financial services and change to close these gaps is happening slowly.

The Committee’s 2018 report found that there are significantly more men in the top earnings quartile for the UK’s financial services sector. A total of 75% of staff working in the top salary quartile in the sector are male. 

Unveiling the latest inquiry, Harriett Baldwin MP, Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, said: “As a committee, we’d like to know whether women feel more supported in the financial services industry than at the time of the previous committee’s inquiry five years ago. We’ll be investigating if enough work has been done to build more supportive workplace cultures, how harassment and misogyny can be addressed, and the role the government and regulator should play in role modelling behaviours.

“Has the culture in this highly paid sector shifted at all in the past five years? This is a subject of marked importance to our committee and we look forward to beginning work on this important topic.”

This latest inquiry follows two recent scandals that have raised serious concerns about abuse and harassment against women in financial services. In April, multiple claims of sexual misconduct of women by leading figures at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) emerged. This resulted in a series of high-profile companies, including Aviva, NatWest, John Lewis and BMW, ending their membership of the business lobbying group.

Earlier in June, another scandal revealed allegations of widespread sexual misconduct dating back as far as 1985 against the multimillionaire Conservative donor and City chief Crispin Odey. This has resulted in his £3.5bn hedge fund Odey Asset Management being disbanded as investors rushed to withdraw funds in response to the accusations. Odey denies any wrongdoing. 

MPs are also questioning the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) over its handling of a long-running probe into the firm. Baldwin has written to the FCA asking the regulator to provide more detail on its investigation into Odey Asset Management.

The Treasury committee welcomes written evidence for its latest inquiry open until 1 September. It would particularly welcome contributions from women who have worked in financial services. 

Further resources: 

• Listen to a recent ICAEW Insights podcast episode discussing the gender bias in tax.
• Take part in the Women in Leadership programme.