Equality 'to avoid being sued'

By SARAH MARKS FOR MAILONLINE
Updated:

 

Move over Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha, the bed-hopping stars of TV's Sex in the City. Sexism in the City would be a more apt description of the testosterone-charged atmosphere of London's investment banks, according to its female workers.

Financial institutions that appear to be 'sensitive' to women's issues after a flood of high-profile sex discrimination cases are just cynically acting out of a need for self-preservation, according to a Reuters poll. The survey asked female analysts, traders and economists in the City whether they believed investment banks are now more sensitive to the issue of sex discrimination. Although 65% of the respondents said they believed banks are more sensitive, most felt the change was not due to any acceptance that women were treated badly.

'It is a cynical recognition rather than an honest acceptance that things are unfair,' said one analyst. 'Banks feel that they are obliged to react not necessarily because they think something is wrong but because they could get sued.'

One woman said male managers in her bank who had been sent on a 'sensitivity course' were told that, when making a choice between dismissing a male or a female, 'they should always keep on the female because the bank didn't want to get sued'.

Recent cases have found in favour of Kay Swinburne, who was forced to resign from her £300,000-a-year job at Deutsche Bank because of her colleague's sexist comments and Aisling Sykes, who claimed that JP Morgan sacked her for asking to work family-friendly hours.

One interviewee said the cases mean women will stick up for themselves. 'In some ways, women are empowered by it because they know they can't be pushed around as much,' she said. Other respondents feared that banks would mark career-orientated women who demanded equal rights as pushy troublemakers.

As ever, pay was deemed the crucial marker of inequality. Some 65% of the women who took part in the survey said men earned more than women doing the same job. One problem touched on was that in many banks salaries are negotiated by the individual and no consensus exists on how much people should be paid. It was felt that women were not as aggressive as men in asking for high salaries.

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