Women in Financial Services
Women’s International Day #BeBoldForChange
Mark.Freed / 09 Mar 2017
There was a real buzz at Cicero HQ yesterday on Women’s International Day. Tina Freed, co-founder of E2W, chaired an inspiring, engaging discussion on ‘Improving Equality in the Workplace” with a panel of leading professionals.
The panel discussions highlighted some of the barriers to equality in the workplace, some of the initiatives that have supported the aims and also what further progress needs to be prioritised.
Diane Pinto, Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Aberdeen Asset Management shared her experience on what can practically be achieved to address unconscious bias. She discussed the importance of putting it on the agenda and raising awareness, and how training programmes have made a big impact for all staff as a way to get it on everyone’s radar encouraging conversations at all levels.
‘I go to work as me’, stated Iain Anderson, Executive Chairman of Cicero, and panel member. We must be proud of who we are and be ourselves at work, whatever our gender, personality, culture or sexual orientation. Executives ‘nudging’ change is not enough, real commitment and action is needed to achieve true inclusion for everyone.
Anna Wallace, Head of UK Political Relations, PwC, encouraged all women to ‘take a seat at the table’, and support each other at meetings, to counteract male dominance and the lack of inclusivity. Anna also discussed the question on whether quotas, targets or industry initiatives were the best tool to drive change and whether these changes should be driven by the government or regulators or whether business should take the lead.
With regards to some of the barriers to progress, Tina Freed raised the point that solving the gender issue cannot be solved by focussing on women. It has to include every person. It can’t be won if men think that by supporting gender parity, they lose out. This goes for all majorities and minorities – we all have to work inclusively.
There was much agreement in the room that promotion and progression of the ‘frozen middle’ is a major barrier and action needs to be developed to build a realistic pipeline of talented women.
Tina Freed asked for the key takeaway to be for us all to celebrate our achievements to date and then make a commitment to declare at least one bold action that will be implemented as soon as the discussion ended.
What is your bold action for change?
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