Women make up only 28% of Fintech employees
In 2022, 70% of senior men said they had a positive view of the FinTech industry’s diversity and inclusion, while only 30% of women agreed with this sentiment. A year on, little seems to have changed – women still make up less than a third of the industry and are paid significantly less than their male counterparts. Those who find themselves working in FinTech must overcome several obstacles to succeed. We at BanklessTimes.com have been looking at how the FinTech industry is serving female talent, and how companies can improve in a way that promotes gender equality.
FinTech is located within both the financial sector and the technology sector, but while women make up almost half of financial services employees (44%), they only represent around a quarter of those in FinTech (28%). This figure is even lower within the wider tech sector, with women making up just 26% of employees in this field.
The fact that men dominate 72% of the FinTech sector is shocking enough, but the imbalance is even more pronounced when looking at entrepreneurs. Only 13% of founders are women over 35, and while younger women (under 35) fare slightly better at 17%, the numbers are alarming. This trend is not limited to FinTech, with similar patterns seen across the technology, banking and bank regulatory sectors.
2022: The best year yet for women in business?
However, things are slowly improving and 2022 was called the best year yet for women in business, with over 150,000 companies launched by women in the UK. This figure is double that of just four years earlier, in 2018. While growth is undoubtedly a good thing, the fact remains that women-led businesses make up just 20% of all UK businesses. There may be more female entrepreneurs than ever before, but it seems they don’t have equal access to the vital venture capital funding that supports the industry. In 2022, for every £1 in equity investment in the UK, female founders received just 2p. Mixed-gender management teams have not fared much better, receiving just 14p for every £1, with all male-led firms picking up the remaining 84p.
The FinTech pay gap is higher than the UK average
Wage discrepancies do not only affect women who finance start-ups. The FinTech industry has a pay gap of 22%, which is significantly higher than the UK average for all sectors of 15%. Still, it’s not quite as bad as the gap of 27% in the technology sector and 26% in the financial sector. Research from Ernst & Young suggests that the main force behind the gender pay gap in the FinTech industry is the male dominance of technical roles and jobs, which command higher wages. Women, on the other hand, tend to hold the less well-paid non-tech roles in industry (such as human resources, marketing and finance). However, the ratio of tech to non-tech roles does not in itself explain the extent of the gender pay gap, with other factors at play including the extremely high cost of childcare in the UK and the fact that women are returning to the workforce. after maternity leave rarely feel in a position to demand the salary their experience deserves.
Unfair pay is just one of the many obstacles women working in FinTech have to overcome. Despite the majority of women in the industry surveyed saying they choose to work in FinTech because they want to improve the financial services industry, 70% felt their contribution was not recognised. 65% believed that the promotion and progression process was not transparent, while 46% felt discriminated against. Women in the industry were also subject to persistent biases, related to their perceived lack of technical expertise.
Are women simply not applying for roles in FinTech?
So what needs to be done to improve equality across the industry? According to a report by Deloitte, many FinTech entrepreneurs put their company’s gender imbalances down to the fact that women are simply not applying for roles in FinTech. This does nothing but send the money. At Bankless Times, we believe that FinTech companies need to take a more proactive role in finding out why women are not applying for roles – they should look hard at the composition of their management teams and interview panels, the transparency of their recruitment. and progression processes, and the flexibility of their terms of employment. Companies can also participate in career fairs that focus on women, or partner with organizations that focus on getting women into the workplace. There are many diversity associations, such as Women in Technology, which can help companies create recruitment security with a diversity focus.
According to research from Girls who Code, nearly 3 out of 4 girls express an interest in computer science at the school level, but when it comes to pursuing a career in technology at the bachelor’s level, that number drops to just 18%. Closing the gender gap must start at the primary school level, and one of the ways this can happen is by increasing the visibility of female leaders and showing that technology is not a career better suited to men. With the majority of women in FinTech feeling that their contributions are not recognised, encouraging women to speak at and attend industry events will not only help create role models for young girls considering a career in the industry, but also ensure that female employees are recognized. for their achievements and have a forum to discuss them.
Fintech companies must invest in recruiting women
FinTech companies should invest in recruiting and retaining women, and can do this by putting women on leadership tracks and enforcing flexible work patterns that fit around childcare commitments.
While all of this is undoubtedly important, there is one key step that companies should take to keep the number of women on their books, and that is the enforced reduction of the gender pay gap. Through increased transparency, companies can contribute to increased equality and strengthen their work culture.
