The UN theme for this year’s IWD is “For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment”; I’ll be honest, as a woman ‘of a certain age’ (thanks Greg Wallace), it’s hard to feel that this aspiration is even close to attainable.
The last 12 months have been full of staggering reminders both nationally and internationally of what the landscape can look like for women and it’s not good. From the Gisèle Pelicot trial to the Taliban banning windows in residential buildings so women can’t be seen, to the staggering data demonstrating an increase in domestic violence against women and rape convictions being at an increasingly suboptimal level, the present looks and feels bleak. This is against the backdrop of many global organisations publicly discarding D,E&I policies and strategies without apology.
Closer to home, the gender pay gap within UK financial services is the highest across all other sectors at 29.8%. It is worth emphasising the point that on average, this means that the average salary for women in financial services is essentially a third less than the average salary of men in the same industry.
Sadly, these headlines are nothing new and most of us are now becoming desensitised to them. What we may also sometimes lose sight of is that as well as the existential threats detailed above, women also have to deal with other consistent injustices in their everyday work life – which are often just accepted and tolerated. The ‘little’ events and microaggressions can be just as impactful to us as women; the deep breath when steeling yourself as the only female around the table (yet again), sitting in a meeting where people make little to no eye contact with you, being spoken over (and over and over), the assumption that you have lesser intelligence and so on… speak to most women and they will tell you their tales.
There has been much research and data on how these behaviours impact our mental health, confidence and overall faith in our own abilities. This vicious cycle often impacts bigger career-related decisions women make on whether to go for that promotion, apply for a role or whether they advocate for a pay-rise. The added disadvantage of throwing in the intersectionality of race (or any other marginalised characteristics) leads to the notion of ‘double jeopardy’ where the result is an increased negative impact and experience.
Notwithstanding the enormity of the task ahead, we have to believe that there is the ability to drive change in the places we work. Regulation within the employment space (including the new protection from sexual harassment legislation) plus the crackdown on non-financial misconduct by the FCA applicable to regulated financial services firms have been helpful to put in place stringent boundaries and consequences for unacceptable behaviours. While organisations should use these policies and procedures as guardrails, they will never be enough to solely implement systemic change. In my experience, culprits of misogyny (whether intentional or otherwise) rarely consult and comb through their policies and procedures before committing an unacceptable act.
Belonging is deeply ingrained in our biology, we are programmed this way and this motivation will often influence our behaviour. As such, people will broadly behave in the way that they believe their tribe will accept (though I accept there will always be outliers in this regard) and the role of organisations, leaders and team-mates cannot be underestimated in driving behavioural change for the better. Creating cultures that call-out and encourage equality for women is critical; the impact of these changes are broad and can help to not only make the workplace more equitable for women but also have an impact on more psychological themes like imposter syndrome which this HBR article proposes may be the constructs of the environments we exist in (exacerbated for women) rather than innate. Therefore, ensuring values-led cultural change should be the north star of organisations; essentially ensuring that we are policy-smart but values-led.
Finally, it is my deep-seated belief that for cultural change to be long-lasting, everyone (including men) needs to be part of the conversation and solution. Peer-relationships as well as leadership have a significant impact when building and sustaining more inclusive workplaces.
We may all know the ‘what’ we need to do, but the magic is sometimes in the ‘how’… it is a given that there needs to be robust organisational policies and procedures in place; however, at Puma, we have found that some of the most effective strategies within our organisation have been related to listening and sharing lived experiences. These can include more formalised panel discussions or staff lunch and learns where we get together to have deep-dive, honest and brave conversations with each other; everyone is invited regardless of level, gender and viewpoint to join in the discussion to share and learn from each other.
For allyship to be true, it cannot be benevolent or forced and helping people to both understand what is expected and tolerated (through policy and culture) and why this is important (through listening and sharing) is critical if we want to move the dial in our own organisations. And while the wider world for women may still be relatively hostile, we may just be able to create a corner for ourselves and each other within our workplaces where we feel a little more safe, equal and empowered.
Tarinee Pandey
Tarinee Pandey is Chief People Officer at Puma Investments and has played an integral role in building one of the Top 100 UK Best Places to Work in the Financial Services and Insurance Sector (as certified by Great Place to Work UK), including being ranked 49th out of 100 (medium category – all sectors) among the UK’s Best Workplaces for Women. She has a passion and drive to deliver meaningful change when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion.
