By Jo Harris, Sales Director, Commercial Finance, SFS UK

It’s happening… but it’s not happening fast enough.

Certainly, the dial has moved on representation of women in senior management positions in the asset finance industry and across British business. But it would be a huge mistake to think that we are anywhere near our goals yet.

An article in leading US publication Forbes, earlier this year, said, “For the first time in history, women CEOs lead about 10% of Fortune 500 companies. This is undoubtedly an important milestone. But it also underscores the need for more women at all levels of leadershipi.”

The 2023 edition of a long-running annual report from IBM’s Institute for Business Value adds, “More organizations recognize that enabling gender equity and inclusion is good for business. In fact, organizations identified as gender equity leaders report 19% higher revenue growth than others in our sample. But overall, not enough companies act as if their continued growth might depend on it. And, with nearly a third of women saying they may leave their jobs this year, attracting and retaining top female talent is only going to get harderii.”

This is a theme I covered in a short paper a couple of years ago, and now I’m returning to the subject to see how increased momentum can be put behind the encouragement, development and deployment of female talent in our businesses today.

Where are we now?

First, we need to look at progress to date here in the UK.

Let’s look at some figures from one of the most reliable reports on the subject – namely the annual FTSE Women Leaders reportiii. The latest edition highlights a positive figure, noting that over 40% of FTSE100 company board members are women. Sounds good. Yet the report tells us that only nine (yes, nine) of the FTSE100 has a female CEO. A glance through the annual reports of the companies in question reveals a hint of what’s going on. Much of the progress on women’s representation has been through the appointment of non-executive directors. And let’s face it, although these appointments are to be welcomed, non-execs are not running the show.

More insight comes when we move to FTSE100 executive committees, where the female representation figure falls to 29%. Not so good. And then we drill down into precisely what executive roles women are occupying. The answer is rather shocking. 21% of FTSE 100 companies have a female Finance Director, and 21% a female Chief Information Officer – almost half the headline figure with which the report starts. In contrast, 69% of FTSE100 HR Directors are women, along with 60% female Company Secretaries. For the finance industry, the record may be better. The Government’s annual Women in Finance Reviewiv reports around 35% female representation in senior roles.

As a Sales Director, I am clearly also interested in knowing roughly what the picture is for women in my specific role. So, we conducted research – again into the FTSE top 100. The exercise is a little complex, in that ‘Sales’ is subject to a variety of titles depending on industry or sector. When equivalent titles were taken into account in our analysis, the representation of women in senior sales roles in FTSE100 companies came out at 24%. In other words, it is broadly equivalent with CFO and CIO female representation, giving us a much more accurate picture of the level to which women are being appointed to the most powerful and ‘hands-on’ executive positions in these companies.

It’s worth reflecting at this point that progress is nevertheless being made. If we had conducted this same analysis of women in the most senior sales roles at top companies even just ten years ago, I doubt the percentage would have even been 10%... maybe lower.

Maintaining the momentum

So how do we move the dial still further? Over and above getting more women on the board, how do we create an environment where more women (on the basis of merit, of course) are being appointed to the truly driving roles at the top of a company – CEO, Finance, Operations and Sales/Commercial?

The main message of this paper, in a nutshell, is early and comprehensive intervention.

At Siemens Financial Services (SFS) in the UK, for instance, we now have a rule that all open positions must assemble a set of candidates that is balanced equally male and female.

This is well intended, and important to have in place, but can often be unrealistic.

Certain roles have traditionally not attracted many women (Sales is a good example). The demands for these roles back in the day simply were not workable for most women – certainly those who were not prepared to sacrifice family for profession. The advances in work flexibility that have been made in recent years have certainly helped.

There is still a confidence issue. Many women still suffer from a sort of impostor syndrome. There’s an age-old anecdote that a man will go for a job if they meet 60% of the criteria, whereas a woman won’t apply unless she meets them all. This needs addressing if we are to have equal numbers of qualified women and men applying for our senior roles.

We certainly need that female talent for better business outcomes. I would go so far as to say that - generally speaking - women may well often be innately better at the Sales role than many men. There is some evidence to suggest that a higher percentage of women than men in Sales make their quotav. Whatever the fact of the matter is, male dominance of sales has been – again in my opinion – less about how good men naturally are (or aren’t) at sales, than about the fact that the Sales role’s historical culture and habits were incompatible with being a wife and mother.

So – while demanding equal numbers of male and female candidates is a fine idea, and should certainly be in place, it’s not the whole solution.

We need to look right down the career ladder, with regards to all of our available commercial roles, and think about the way we can get an equal feed of men and women, particularly in Sales. Offering good career prospects plus working practices will also allow women to manage a family without being ‘downgraded’ or penalised in the career journey. This is a debate which we are already progressing internally at SFS. To bring everyone on board with better female representation, we also have to promote what women in particular bring to these roles, such as fostering relationships, managing teams and nurturing collaboration.

What to do?

I would suggest that a number of practical initiatives should enable earlier and more thorough interventions which then create a ‘feed’ of high-quality female candidates for roles that were previously unpopular with women.

Schools and Colleges
Girls and young women need to be convinced of the idea that all business roles can be theirs – right from the start. Business and Education need to stand together to get the message across. And there is some definite progress. The percentage of women working in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) field in the UK is now close to 25%vi. Engineering UK’s research tells us that nowadays over two fifths of girls said they think Engineering (a subject close to Siemens’ heart!) would be a suitable career for them (42%) – and that’s a lot more than at the start of the millennium.

Women’s Impact Programmes
When done well, these programmes do not try and ‘train women to be more like men’ - but help develop confidence and empower women to develop their roles and responsibilities in their own style, growing their natural capabilities into the job and avoiding male stereotypes. I have often said that these programmes work best if they are also accompanied by training for male counterparts to also escape their stereotypes. ‘Micro-aggressions’ is an important concept, where sexism can exist in small pockets of language or behaviour – usually quite unconsciously – and where awareness training can make a huge difference. Some of the best examples are when someone describes a woman’s actions in ways that would not be used to describe a man who did the same things. One study notesvii, for example, “labelling a woman as too nice to be able to do a job, bossy, a drama queen, too aggressive, needy, highly-strung, and so on.” The same piece tells the story of business funding pitches where “Male entrepreneurs were described as ‘young and promising’ whereas women were described as ‘young and inexperienced’; men as ‘cautious, sensible and level headed’ but women as ‘too cautious and unsure.’" Perhaps readers might like to examine their own language in this respect! The result may be uncomfortable, but the exercise is worth it.

Increasingly, women have found their voice at work and have been able to have a career and a family. Our Women’s Impact Programme at SFS is all about confidence and self-empowerment. It does not try to run ambitious women down stereotypically male definitions of each role but opens the vista to a freedom to achieve, in one’s own individual way. This is not a ‘soft option’ though. It’s all about shared responsibility.

No-one gets an easy ride, and expectations for commercial performance are exactly the same whatever your gender, ethnicity, social background, etc.

We’re creating a new culture. But that’s all about working together and collectively carrying the can. As we say, culture doesn’t happen to you, it happens with you. And perhaps one of the best illustrations of collective support is the way that the leaders in our business enthusiastically give up some of their time to come and take part in some of the Women’s Impact sessions.

I know that not all corporations are as active as SFS in this issue. And I can say that from a personal perspective, having had two breaks for maternity leave, with no obstacles for my career progression.

Simi Sandhu, Assoc CIPD Business Executive, Business Learning and Development, Siemens Financial Services UK

Allyship from Senior Males
‘Allyship’ sounds like a terrible piece of Diversity & Inclusion jargon, but in fact it describes a very significant concept. Allyship is defined as the actions, behaviours, and practices that leaders take to support, amplify, and advocate with minority groups, even though they themselves are not in the minority.

In the quest for gender balance, this means male seniors who become actively involved and supportive of the enablement and empowerment of women in their business. As we say in the title to this short paper, the absence of enough female role models, especially as a woman becomes more senior, means that male ‘allies’ have a critical role to play in effecting change.

Identifiable Role Models
While there is clearly a shortage of female role models for aspiring women in business – certainly those who have managed to be a professional, a wife and a mother – we need to put even more effort into identifying and promoting those that do exist. There’s no-one more convincing than ‘someone like you’.

I try my hardest to be available as a role model for women coming up through our organisation – whether specifically SFS or across the whole Siemens corporation. But what about for people like me? Where do I look? Where can I find a role model who matches my profile for being a successful Senior Sales Director while also having managed and brought up a family?

This may be the most important area where we as an industry – whether Asset Finance specifically or the Financial Services sector in general – should club together. Given the scarcity of very senior women leaders still, we should be making every effort to persuade these female role models to share their story, allow it to be publicised, and inspire current and future generations of women to aspire to the top of their profession. And since they must not be swamped with demands, this is where male ‘allies’ can give invaluable support by spreading the word of these women’s stories.

Key takeaways

In summary, we must applaud and celebrate the progress that is being made in the representation of women at the highest echelons of business. But when doing so, we also have to keep a firm eye on the reality of the achievements so far. Having a high level of female non-execs on top company boards is a step in the right direction, but it’s not yet filling the executive jobs that are truly running the company.

Last year, a report came out saying that companies with female CEOs are more profitable than othersviii. Moreover, women’s skillsets often seem to score better. A 2023 US study “reveals that there are meaningful differences in the ways female and male leaders show up in the workplace. Further, these differences favour female leaders, who have developed a more Creative, as opposed to Reactive, leadership orientationix.”

Whatever the truth (which I hope ends up being an equal appreciation of female and male leaders), failing to identify, support and promote female talent is simply bad for business. And shareholders and investors are increasingly waking up to the fact. As a positive end-note, it is significant that in our industry, the financial services regulators have issued guidance on the issue that “Set flexible, proportionate minimum standards to raise the bar, placing more requirements on larger firmsx.”

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