Tuesday last week Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief executive of Virgin Money, spoke to the MPs on the Treasury Select Committee, about an issue that concerns all of us, but mostly women: sexism in the City of London.
The story hit the media around the UK, pointing out how Britain still fails to close the gender gap in senior and middle management roles. The Evening Standard published the news with a provoking title “Hire women bosses to boost your business”, as Gadhia insisted on the “moral and economic benefits” of having more representative boardrooms to boost productivity in the workplace. Studies show that businesses with a gender balance in the senior management have a 2% point higher return than those with men.
“Gender balance would bring 12 trillion of economic benefit to the world. I continue to be surprised by the UK lagging behind in terms of productivity. Driving gender equality will bring benefits to productivity. That’s a measurable outcome we should all aspire to,” enthused Gadhia.
A turtle progress A study, published earlier this year by the Financial Times, shows that the progress has been really slow. Women represented the 25.5% of senior roles in 2016, compared with 23.7% in 2014. And the number of women in mid-level jobs hasn’t moved from 39%, in the same period.
There is a progress, but the macho culture in the work environment of the City of London remains, preventing women to progress in the financial services. This has been the main reason of why women tend to be reticent to apply. Of about two million people that are hired in the sector, 86% of the positions are occupied by men.
“Women responded overwhelmingly that they didn’t want to get involved in financial services at a senior level because of the culture issue rather than issues such as child care. It’s the culture of always having to be present, of the need to be seen at the desk at 7am and still be there at 10pm. But why should they be seen? It should be all about the outputs,” said Gadhia, referring to a report done by Women in Finance for the treasury.
Nicky Morgan, chair of the committee of MPs responded Gadhia's allegations: "The Treasury Committee heard today that one way of tackling the pay gap in finance is to ensure that we have more women in senior roles." He added: “We will continue our Women in Finance inquiry to identify how this can be achieved.”
The event certainly marks yet another wake-up call to businesses, who should keep on breaking down the barriers that stop women reaching their full potential, and the overall success of a company.
Jayne-Anne Gadhia has been the Chief Executive of Virgin Money since 2007. She was born in the West Midlands and studied history in London before she embarked into the accountant training at Ernst and Young. She became head of Norwich Union unit trusts division in 1987 and after a year she had risen the sales on a 300 per cent. She worked as Fred Goodwin right hand at the Royal Bank of Scotland from 2001-2006, and since then she has been with the Virgin Brand. She says all her confidence comes from having attended an all boys school at Norfolk when she was only thirteen.