Game changers
Women at the top will be key to boosting UK’S economy
‘So many talented women in business feel discouraged and isolated, not even sure if the executive role is for them’
‘Your gender should play no part in opportunity, progress or success in life. Getting this right could unleash a wave of energy’
Over white wine and Italian canapés on Tuesday night, some of the biggest names in British banking gathered together to make a vow. Inspired by The Daily Telegraph’s Women Mean Business campaign, the maledominated industry promised to back female entrepreneurs following an independent review commissioned by the Treasury. The move is viewed as crucial for the economy given just 10pc of start-up funding goes to women.
Treasury minister Robert Jenrick credits the Women
Mean Business campaign for playing a “critical role” in bringing the issue to the attention of government, adding that helping female founders expand their business is
“one of the greatest opportunities we have as a country at this moment”.
The Telegraph launched the campaign last year to shine a light on the funding gap and barriers faced by female entrepreneurs in starting their own businesses. Shortly afterwards the Government commissioned a review into the problem led by RBS banker Alison Rose, who is tipped to become the bank’s first female boss.
According to the British Business Bank, women-led firms were given £32m in investment in 2017; male-only teams received more than £5bn.
Rose has previously said the campaign has been “a really helpful stimulus” in raising awareness of the challenge, while Penny Mordaunt, the Minister for Women and Equalities, praised the campaign for calling out investors for not funding female start-ups. But there is still a long way to
go. Although the City’s most venerable institutions are scrambling to change their image and put the Wolf of Wall Street days behind them, it is largely still white men who are in charge.
Sir Philip Hampton, Glaxosmithkline’s chairman who co-chaired a governmentcommissioned review into women in business in 2016, says he is concerned the “very top positions are still very male and very white”. He adds that while there has been progress in terms of board diversity – just four FTSE 350 companies still have all-male boards compared to 152 in 2011 – most of the high-profile executive roles are still going to men. “Executives are obviously full time and get the big pay. A regular nonexecutive will typically do 20-40 days a year, so the roles are quite different,” Sir Philip says. “We need to work at it with leadership and targets.” Companies are also trying to crackdown on boorish behaviour. A number of big names last year pulled out of annual property conference Mipim, a week-long event in Cannes full of lavish parties, amid concerns about behaviour after the Presidents Club scandal. The London Metal Exchange this year introduced a code of conduct for the first time in its 142-year history, months after a member held an event at the Playboy Club, while insurance market Lloyd’s of London closed its on-site pub and introduced stricter rules after it was hit by allegations of sexual harassment and bullying against female staff.
Dame Inga Beale, who was the first female boss of Lloyd’s of London and stood down last year, believes there is still “all sorts of unconscious and conscious biases at play” that comes from centuries of women being excluded from the workplace. “Women didn’t feature in the business world [historically] except in the form of secretarial and assistant roles,” she says. “Differences are not always respected and appreciated. I have felt at times I have been told ‘please lean in more – I know I hired you into the role but I’d like it if you behaved more like a man’.”
Dame Helena Morrissey, who is in charge of almost £900bn worth of assets for Legal & General Investment Management, agrees. She feels it is still very hard for women “not to play the men’s game”.
“The whole system tends to be set up to reward and promote people for being tough and aggressive, working long hours rather than smartly, and being ‘clubby’ rather than ‘different’,” argues the mother of nine.
“So many talented women in business understandably feel discouraged and isolated, not even sure if the executive role is for them.”
Indeed, research released this week showed that 85pc of FTSE 350 firms do not have a female board member in an executive role, while just 3.7pc have a female chief executive. At that rate of progress there is expected to be no gender equality until 2090.
“Too few women are making it to the top and when people suggest change can’t happen at a faster rate, it just doesn’t wash with me,” adds Dame Jayne-anne Gadhia, the former boss of Virgin Money. “Your gender should play no part in opportunity, progress or success in life, and getting this right could unleash a wave of entrepreneurial energy, increase the size of the UK economy and create a better society for everyone.”
Jenrick, who this week chaired the Rose review’s first board meeting alongside Chancellor Philip Hammond, agrees that more needs to be done. He called on companies to look at “the types of roles women are reaching senior levels in” to ensure that they are not just in back office functions.
“I want all businesses to be taking that very seriously and monitoring the pipeline and ensuring that talented women are getting the promotions that they need,” he said.
The support from the major British banks (except HSBC, which hasn’t yet endorsed the new code due to concerns about data sharing) comes just over a year after 200 business leaders, entrepreneurs, MPS and academics joined The Telegraph in calling on the Government to boost female entrepreneurship.