Bosses must take the lead in tackling toxic alpha male sexism, says Conservative MP HARRIET BALDWIN

Our financial services industry is leading and well-paid. It is a part of the economy that benefits women and men across Britain. Growth, competitiveness and profits depend on attracting and retaining the very best people.

I’ve had a successful career in city politics for 20 years, so I’m no stranger to the issues facing women in financial services.

A lot has changed since then, but you only have to look at the woefully low number of female CEOs in finance to see that there is room for improvement.

In 2016, when I was city minister, I shed light on the issue by launching the Women in Finance Charter, which now has more than 400 signatories and covers more than 1 million employees.

Before my time on the Treasury Department committee in 2018, there was a toxic alpha male culture in the city that made it difficult for talented women to thrive.

Now, with me as chairman, our committee has decided to take another look to see what has (or even hasn’t) changed over the past six years.

Disappointingly, we’ve discovered that the answer is not much. In fact, progress is moving at a snail’s pace.

We spoke to industry leaders, regulators, women’s advocacy groups and government ministers to understand what they were doing about it. What was really crucial, however, was understanding reality.

We hosted a private event with women who had worked at all levels and areas of the financial services industry.

Their evidence was anonymous, allowing them to share honest experiences of working in a male-dominated industry without fear of reprisal.

We were shocked. Women described their experiences with misogyny, sexual harassment and bullying, up to and including serious sexual assault and rape.

We received particularly disturbing testimony about non-disclosure agreements, which we were told companies were using to cover up sexual harassment.

Not only does this ensure that victims of abuse are silenced, it also leaves the door open for those responsible to continue with abuse with impunity.

I strongly believe that companies must take responsibility to tackle sexism in the city. Boardrooms and senior managers should not have to look to government or regulators before taking action to give women a fair deal.

If boardrooms became aware that an employee was stealing profits, would they wait for an authority figure to tell them that this is wrong and that they should take action? Of course not.

It’s not all doom and gloom. We have seen some incremental improvement on issues such as the gender pay gap and women’s representation in senior positions. But it’s not enough.

A recent BlackRock study found that gender-balanced companies outperform their peers, demonstrating the competitive advantage that comes from making efforts to attract and retain great people.

Some progress has been made, but there is still much to do. The city must be able to draw on the widest possible pool of talent and boardrooms must play their part in eradicating the sexist culture that still infects some parts of the industry.

Failure to do so is not only immoral, but also bad for business.

Harriett Baldwin is the Conservative MP for West Worcestershire