New research reveals that the UK FinTech landscape is struggling with diversity. But there are things that could be done to fix it.
EY’s and Innovate Finance recently released their new FinTech Census survey. The report is the culmination of a survey with 224 firms operating in the sector.
Among other things, it found that diversity continues to be a problem in the sector. Of the workers in the sector, 70.5% are male and 29.5% are female. Moreover, only one in four FinTech enterprises in the UK had a female co-founder.
That comes on the back of research recruitment agency Astbury Marsden conducted in 2016, which showed that only 9% of the UK’s top 50 FinTech companies had a woman on their boards.
However, Elina Räsänen, vice-president of marketing and communications at Holvi, the digital banking solution for freelancers, is not surprised.
“Positions in tech and finance haven’t traditionally been ‘advertised’ as viable career options for women, so I guess it starts from the education young people receive at school,” she tells FinTech Global.
Räsänen also points out that for a long time, women have as a result lacked clear female role models in the financial sector, meaning “women haven’t had relatable figures in positions of power and maybe they haven’t even considered the sector to be an option for them as a result.”
That being said and while she recognizes the importance of having visiable role models, she is against the diversity just for diversity’s sake. “There are occasions, for example in bigger FinTech events and panels, where I have been invited to participate based on my gender to fill a quota, but I have always systematically refused to participate unless the request is based on my professional expertise,” she says.
“Partly though, I think it’s also about women themselves – maybe we haven’t actively sought a career in FinTech ourselves.”
Yet, she notes “an encouraging trend” where “more and more women are working in FinTech and we’re also starting to see women in C-level positions.”
To her, the main way to ensure more diversity in the sector is to keep having talking about it. “Ultimately the discussion around male domination is healthy because it’s forcing companies to look further and search for talent wider than just within their existing network that could be dominated by the same demographic as always – white and male,” Räsänen explains.
“Despite the fact that I think it’s important to discuss the matter and to try and increase the amount of women in FinTech as well, gender shouldn’t play a role. There shouldn’t be any gender quotas for companies, management teams or boards. I think true equality comes through not making a fuss about gender.
“Businesses also need to examine their equal treatment policies and ensure promotions and salaries are paid based on merits and achievements, not personal relationships or gender. Similarly, women also need to more actively search for career opportunities within FinTech and aim higher – something that may be helped along if we’re portraying a more diverse pool of leaders in FinTech, so we in turn increase representation. Education starts at an early age but there are still improvements to make if we’re to promote tech and finance as a viable career option for young girls.”
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