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Women in Business
Bidding for a better opportunity and equality
A greater determination by women to break the traditional employment ‘glass ceiling’ is showing through strongly in Gibraltar, as groups form to consider what in practice can be done to ensure equal opportunity for females – and sometimes, also for men, as Ray Spencer finds out
The FSC is to “review its HR policies through an equality and diversity lens that will extend beyond the role of women in the workplace”, Barrass promises.
As Marcus Killick, chief executive officer at ISOLAS law firm, affirms: “Whilst the reality is that all lawyers are employed on their merits rather than by gender, we have to be careful that we do not have accidental discrimination, which restricts an individual’s progression, for example by not having an adequate maternity policy, opportunities for career gaps and flexibility on hours, all of which tend to disproportionately affect how women rise to the top in their legal careers – at ISOLAS we are moving on these aspects.”
Pay parity question: Emma Perez, CEO, S G Hambros Bank
He agrees that women “probably are under represented in Gibraltar law firms” saying: “At ISOLAS, whilst women make up over half of the total number of non-partner fee earners, only one of our eight partners is female. There are 17 other fee earners, eight of whom are female.”
Will Morgan has been house husband for 14 years since his wife Kathryn, a qualified actuary, gave birth to their daughter Liz, and in 2014, she became the FSC’s director of regulatory operations, previously having had a role at the Bank of England.
“My husband gave up work as a driver, because after discussion, he considered that it would be economically better for him to stay at home and be primary carer to our daughter,” 53 year old Morgan explains.
“In Gibraltar, when I go into a room - and often I am the only woman - I have had the impression it’s the men who go out to work and the women have responsibility for children. Most of the discussions I have had with women in the workplace, all relate to childcare. And I don’t agree; it’s not my sole responsibility.”
Her good friend in the UK, Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief executive of Virgin Money,
Continued overleaf
Regulator Samantha Barrass (centre) is to review diversity with her female dominated top team
Against a background of growing pressure for improved maternity pay, help with nursery provision and shared paternity leave, initiatives by government and amongst financial services firms and other businesses in the jurisdiction, generally lag behind those in the UK.
At October 2014 (the latest figures available) 42% of the 24,422 Gibraltar employed were women. The total of employed women grew that year by 3.8%, but there were 8.7% more working men.
Edward Macquisten, chief executive of Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce, observes: “One of the most interesting developments has been the significant increase in women in employment in the last 20 years.
“This has been for a whole variety of reasons: more women going to university and gaining professional qualifications and a greater number of white collar jobs available.
Gibraltar has developed as a service-based economy. This has given more opportunities for women to do a wider range of jobs.”
Larger companies moving to Gibraltar often had more sophisticated employment needs, he says, not just recruiting for a job, but providing ongoing training and development.
But of the 2,761 people in the jurisdiction who had average annual full or part time earnings of more than £50,000, just 551 were female.
Emma Perez, chief executive officer of S G Hambros Bank (Gibraltar), describes herself as “one of the lucky few” not to have
experienced sexism in her career, “but you do hear of people who have had problems, not getting roles because they were women. There is still a question on salary parity, depending on the organisation and its size, even in the financial services sector.”
As the only female head of banking locally since 2006, she sees more of her gender today in senior financial services sector roles. “There is still improvement to be made, and it’s still quite a male-oriented society,” she points out.
Samantha Barrass, chief executive of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), where its 72 staff are equally divided between the sexes, notes: “If I find an all-male Board - and there are quite a lot in Gibraltar - I’ll think you haven’t got a single woman; it’s really striking, but it doesn’t appear to strike a lot of other people.” It’s not a regulatory issue, but she says if the issue is raised, the response typically is that it has nothing to do with sexism, appointments being made on merit.
“I know this jurisdiction has a lot of very good women and more needs to be done to understand that when we as employers are looking to recruit, it’s quite natural to want to appoint people who are most like us, and there can be a natural drive that works against diversity in the workplace”, says the 52 year old mother of three, who has worked mostly in male-dominated financial services entities.
Preventing indirect bias
Yet the FSC’s top team of five has only one male, newest recruit Peter Taylor, Director of Legal, Enforcement and Policy. Barrass maintains that having worked in large organisations “with a considerable focus around equality and diversity and around understanding bias and how indirect bias can creep into all sorts of decisions, it’s quite a change for me to be in a jurisdiction where there is much less of a formal equality and diversity agenda running through. There should be”.
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