More women in top level City roles

RA Now

The proportion of women reaching senior management positions in the City has doubled in the last year, according to research from recruiter Astbury Marsden.

Twelve per cent of managing directors are now women, up from 6% recorded in 2012, and 19% of all directors and vice president are women – an increase of five percentage points since last year.

Further increases in gender equality have been reported in the figures with women now accounting for one fifth of all profession-level City
employees, up from 18% in 2012.

However, there are still more women in non-client facing and non-fee earning jobs. Women make up 60% of HR professionals, 40% of internal auditors, but only 19% of corporate brokers and stockbrokers and 25% within private equity.

“Our research demonstrates the fact that a higher proportion of women working in the City are now breaking through the glass-ceiling and
reaching senior management positions,” said Mark Cameron, chief operating officer at Astbury Marsden.

“However, there is also the question as to why the women have a much lower overall representation in some of the higher paid areas of financial services such as positions in corporate broking and stockbroking or positions in private equity.”

The research also found that the City is one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse areas of the UK. The proportion of workers that are of Asian descent is 19% compared to 7.5% of the UK population, while 11% of the City’s workforce is Indian compared to the national population of 2.5%.

The percentage of City workers who said they were Christian fell by 5 percentage points in 2013, from 46% to 41% over the last year, far lower than the 59% noted in the UK overall. Astbury Marsden’s research showed that the percentage of Hindus employed in the City is 8% compared with 1.5% for the UK overall.

“The City now recruits and promotes based on merit, targeting the very best graduates from around the world,” Cameron added. “It is a true meritocracy and that is one reason why it is able to continually attract applications from the most exceptional maths, economics and engineering graduates.”