Gender inequality in financial services still a crucial issue

Oksana Patron

8 March 2023

Gender inequality across financial services, with regards to both the pay gap between women and men and women underrepresentation in senior management, leadership and board roles, is one of the crucial issues that need to be tackled, according to Padua Solutions.

Interestingly, the overall percentage of women in the finance and insurance industry in Australia stood at 53.7% against 46.3% of men, but it is important to stress there were variations by the gender balance across different roles and levels within the industry.

“In respect to women vs. men in senior and leadership roles in the finance and insurance industry in Australia, unfortunately the stats don’t read so well. According to the same report, women are still significantly underrepresented in those positions,” Anne-Marie Esler, co-founder and managing director of Padua Solutions,  said in advance of International’s Women Day 2023.

“Only 38% of key management personnel are women, while men make up 62% of those roles. Further, only 23% of board directorships are held by women, while men hold a whopping 77% of those roles! That’s a pretty significant gender imbalance.”

However, Esler added that the industry was working on it and trying to make some changes to improve gender diversity in senior and leadership positions and there has been a slow but steady increase in the number of women in senior and leadership positions in the financial services industry in Australia over the past decade.

According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, the proportion of women in key management positions in the industry has increased from 29.7% in 2010 to 37.9% in 2020. Similarly, the proportion of female board directors has increased from 14.2% in 2010 to 22.8% in 2020.

“While progress has been made, it is still clear that women are significantly underrepresented in senior and leadership roles in the industry, and there is still a long way to go in achieving gender balance and equality,” Esler said.

“According to Australia’s Workplace Gender Equality data released in December 2022, the financial services sector has the second highest gender pay gap (GPG) with 28.6% of all employees – second only to the construction industry.”

“Padua is a financial technology and tech-enabled services provider which has a balanced gender ratio across both staff (52% women vs 48% men), management (50% women vs 50% men), senior leadership (57% women vs 43% men) and CEO level (50% / 50%). However, we also recognise we have work to do – with only 20% women represented at our board level (one woman to four men).”