The latest edition of Oliver Wyman’s Women in Financial Services report has found that the industry is finally making progress on gender diversity in the workforce.
Mindsets are shifting and, as a result of hard work and commitment, progress is beginning to be reflected in the numbers.
But that progress – 20 per cent representation of women on executive committees and 23 per cent on boards – is not enough. There is still a long way to go to create an industry in which women have equal access to opportunity and positive outcomes.
What got us to where we are today will not get us to our ultimate destination. So the report sets out to answer: what will deliver the next wave of change in gender diversity as we enter a new decade?
The report argues that recognizing that the workforce is not the only stakeholder group to which a firm is accountable is key. There is at least a $700 billion revenue opportunity from better serving women as customers. Supervisors and shareholders are increasingly applying pressure on firms to embed stability and drive better returns through diversity and inclusion. And both individual firms and the industry as a whole have a responsibility and opportunity to improve gender equality in society more broadly.
This edition of the report takes a panoramic view of gender diversity across all stakeholders. This will lead to creative solutions in defining an action plan, embedding diversity and inclusion as part of business strategy, and calling for public commitment to gender equality in financial services. And in doing so it pushes the issue into the daily path of the CEO and executive committee.
