Treasury Committee launches inquiry into sexism in financial services

investmentweek.co.uk:

The Treasury Committee is chaired by Harriett Baldwin (pictured).

MPs said today (14 July) that its inquiry would focus on the barriers faced by women in the financial services sector, in an effort to assess progress in eradicating gender pay gaps and combating sexual harassment and misogyny. 

Chair Harriett Baldwin said the investigation will seek to find out «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».

Asset managers are failing to measure gender or ethnicity pay gaps

MPs will also explore the role of government and regulators in acting as gender diversity role models, how they should ensure cultures and policies support women's aspirations and progress and whether financial services careers should be marketed towards a more diverse base of individuals.

The inquiry comes five years after the committee's 2018 probe, which called for firms to encourage the progression of women in finance by abolishing 'alpha-male' cultures, removing the stigma of flexible working with senior men leading by example, and encouraging firms to publish strategies for closing gender pay gaps. 

The MPs will evaluate the industry's progress on implementing those recommendations, as well as the impact of the Treasury's Women in Finance Charter.

Advancing gender equality through transparency, technology and leadership

«As a committee, we would 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,» Baldwin said.

«Has the culture in this highly paid sector shifted at all in the last five