Women made up 42.7% of staff in the financial and insurance services sector for Q2 2023, Office for National Statistics (ONS) data has revealed.
While this is a 0.4% increase from Q1 2023, figures are still 1.6% lower compared to Q2 in 2022.
Women as a percentage of employees in financial services have been steadily falling, as records show that in Q1 1997 women made up 53.5% of the sector, 10.8% more than today.
This is reportedly most likely due to the decline in traditional administrative jobs and growth of IT use in the sector.
However, overall employment in the sector for Q2 went up 5.7% to 1.53m, making it the highest number of employees in the sector and the highest share of all UK jobs since records began.
Nikola Southern, employment partner specialising in financial services at law firm Kingsley Napley, said: “The financial services gender balance figures are surprisingly positive for an industry which still suffers reputationally as far as employment of women is concerned.
“If improvements are to be made, financial institutions should pay heed to wider societal trends and ask why they are still outliers in 2023. In particular, they should be looking to ensure their culture is not a deterrence for female employees, that discrimination in all its guises is eliminated and that modern family and menopause policies are adopted to support their female staff.”
