Ministers: kick out alpha males to help women rise in business
COMPANIES in the UK must undergo a “genuine culture change” to get rid of alpha males and promote women, government ministers have said.
Ministers John Glen and Victoria Atkins have called for “greater diversity” in the workplace, and for companies to “call out” non-inclusive behaviour.
They highlighted the “woefully low” number of women in senior jobs in the City, calling it “morally wrong” and saying it affected productivity.
“We have a problem when it comes to the representation of senior women in the financial services sector,” the ministers said in a letter to MPS. Responding
‘The culture of a firm or sector can have a significant impact on the progression of women’
to the Treasury Committee’s Women in Finance report, the Government accepted calls to abolish “alpha male” culture, remove the stigma around flexible working and encourage senior men to lead by example.
The letter said there was still a “long way to go” for the financial sector to become diverse. “This includes encouraging gender balance at all levels of seniority and focusing on other forms of diversity,” it added.
Mr Glen and Ms Atkins said: “The culture of a firm or sector can have a significant impact on the progression of women, and this can be one of the toughest issues to address.
“Many of our signatory firms are improving their approach to flexible working by making agile working more accessible, acceptable and visible. This includes introducing policies such as job-sharing and compressed hours. Another way in which firms can change the culture of their organisation is by equipping senior leaders with the practical tools and techniques to ‘call out’ non-inclusive behaviour and language.”
The ministers highlighted work within the Treasury to boost diversity, including a target of 50 per cent representation of women at every level.
But the Government decided not to act on the MPS’ recommendation to extend to smaller firms the requirement for companies to publish gender pay gap statistics. At the moment, only companies with 250 or more employees must publish data.
Nicky Morgan, who chairs the Treasury Committee, said that allowing smaller companies to remain exempt “could impact the trends emerging from the reporting data and the conclusions drawn”.
The committee’s report, published In June, said companies must do more to address the “alpha-male” culture still prevalent in many workplaces.
MPS called for more male bosses to “lead by example” by adopting flexible working, to remove the “stigma” associated with it and erase “presenteeism”. They also said companies should publish strategies to close gender pay gaps.
The committee said the “overwhelming reason” women gave for not wanting to progress in finance firms was the culture. It argued that negotiations over bonuses perpetuated an “alpha-male culture”, with men perceived to argue more forcefully for money.
Ms Morgan said yesterday: “The gender pay gap in financial services is partly due to the woefully low number of women in leadership positions. The Committee’s report said that, to overcome this, firms should change their culture, specifically around bonuses, to support the progression of women.”