There is “still much to do until we reach a place of gender parity in our industry” is the realistic but bitter summary of FINSIA’s latest edition of its Gender Divide Survey.
More than half (51 per cent) of the female respondents and 35 per cent of male respondents to this survey “said they have occasionally experienced, or known someone to experience, harassment and/or sexism in the workplace,” Chris Whitehead, FINSIA’s CEO said in his foreword to the survey, published this morning.
“This concern is compounded by what appears to be an increase in discomfort – from both women and men – about speaking up about issues of gender inequality,” Whitehead said.
In her executive summary, Linda Maniaci, chair of the FINSIA Diversity Advisory Council wrote: “The 2020 survey reveals that on many issues there is a pronounced gap between male and female perceptions of the underlying problems driving gender inequality.”
The most notable findings were:
— a disconnect between what organisations are saying and what they are doing. More respondents have diversity and inclusion KPIs associated with their role, and more than half agreed that the promotion and advancement of women is an organisational priority in principle. However, female respondents are still much less likely than men to agree that their employer is committed to the promotion and advancement of women in practice.
— Men and women have vastly different views on pay transparency: This time, the survey recorded the biggest ever gap in perception as to whether an organisation is transparent about pay.
— Male respondents are more than three times likely (58 per cent) to agree that their employer is transparent about remuneration than female respondents (18 per cent) Chris Whitehead: “There is the perception by many men that it's not a significant pay gap. Well if it’s not a significant pay gap why not be transparent about it?”
“The best way we can be sure to close the gap in perceptions is to have more information available about remuneration,” Whitehead told Banking Day.
“Pay transparency is the key thing for our industry, when you add bonuses and incentives the gap is up to 27.5 per cent,” Maniaci said.
Posing the question to herself: 'Has there been any change in the last 10 years?' Maniaci answered: “No! Every two years when the Gender Divide Survey results are released I wait in anticipation to see some positive changes, but in fact we're going backwards.”