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International Women’s Day I
nternational Women’s Day is the day to celebrate the achievement of women around the world, raise awareness against all forms of bias and take global action for equality. In recent years we have focused on various Environmental, Social and Governance issues and how these impact our lives and planet. The S in ESG is quite important as it impacts the social factors that affects our organisations and the economy such as – education, diversity and inclusion, unemployment, marginalisation of certain groups of people, vulnerable groups, etc. the steps we can take to ensure we make a lasting impact to the lives we touch and celebrate girls and women around the world by breaking the bias that holds our society hostage goes a long way in ensuing equality. Socio-economic diversity The City of London Corporation was commissioned to lead an independent taskforce to boost socio-economic diversity because there is a lack of socio-economic diversity at the top of UK’s financial and professional services. Statistics show that greater socio-economic diversity promotes: ■ ■ ■ ■
iversity and inclusion D Boosts productivity Provides access to a wider pool of talent Encourages global competitiveness
We are encouraged to be the change the we want to see, raise awareness of the need to see socio-economic diversity at the top of our organisations and create an action plan for success. Financial and professional services are encouraged to get involved here. Women in Finance Charter In 2015 Jayne-Anne Gadhia (former CEO of Virgin Money) was appointed to lead the review of women representation in senior managerial roles in financial services. The response to the review created the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter which encourages financial services of all shapes and sizes to commit to the Women in Finance Charter. It is encouraging to see that over 400 financial companies have committed to the Women in Finance Charter however the percentage of women at senior positions across the financial industry is still relatively low.
industry due to the bias of the industry being male dominated and cutthroat; ■ The amount of time and commitment it takes to work up to a senior or partner level; ■ Lack of female retention in the mid-tier of management; and ■ Lack of career progression. We have heard stories of senior men complaining that they are worried about promoting women because women get pregnant, take maternity leaves or don’t return after maternity leave or some insisting, they cannot find women who were good enough for senior roles or can do the job as well as “the boys”. While these stereotypes still persist in most industries in particular the financial industries, it is important to note that a diverse gender and race financial industry is desirable from a representation perspective. Decisions taken by financial industry professionals have significant impact on the UK economy. Although we are slowly seeing diversity at the executive level, it is encouraging that the Financial Conduct Authority has stated diversity and inclusion are regulatory issues and it will be interesting to see what regulations are brought in to encourage diversity and inclusion in the financial services industry. To promote women retention and improve gender equality consider: ■ C reating the right culture where women feel psychologically safe ■ Provide technology that supports flexible working and boosts productivity ■ Ensure transparent pay structures ■ Increase the number of female role models and women in executive positions within the organisation ■ Implement good flexible working policies ■ Support working parents ■ Offer mentoring schemes especially reverse mentoring schemes We join the celebrations round the world to imagine a gender equal world, strive for a world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination and work towards a diverse, equitable and inclusive world. Please watch out for the joint campaign we will be holding with the Legal Women for International Women’s Day. #BreakTheBias. ■
These can be as a result of the following factors: ■ T he career break for starting a family; ■ The lower number of women interested in the financial
Kene Onyeka Allison
Vice President, In-house solicitor at Mizuho International plc CENTRAL LONDON LAWYER | 25
