It’s not that women don’t work in the financial services sector, as new data suggests that representation is only increasing, but something happens at a point within the hierarchy that prevents them from filling the top jobs. Female representation on the boards of financial services firms rose to 39% at the start of this year, increasing from 35% in 2022. The data relates to companies that have signed the Women in Finance Charter, an initiative which aims to improve female representation in financial services firms here.
Comprising 65,000 employees across 91 firms, the charter found that among original signatories, female representation on boards rose significantly. Among the 56 companies that joined the charter in 2022, female representation on executive committees increased to 37%, from 33% in 2022. In addition, a quarter of CEOs among these original firms are female, an increase of four percentage points since 2022.
Across charter signatories as a whole, female representation grew at the senior management level from 37% to 41%, while on an executive committee level, representation rose from 30% to 35%. It also found that female representation among chief executive officers rose from 22% to 26% and grew from 35% to 39% on a board level. With 91 firms now signatories to the Charter, representing 50% of all employees in the financial services sector, significant progress has been made.
However, there is still much more work to be done across all sectors of the Irish econo.
