Financial institutions urged to create empowering environment for women

By Luisa Maria J.C. Jocson, Reporter

THE LACK of women in high-value positions in the financial sector should push the industry to create an empowering environment for them to succeed, the top official of an investment bank said.

“A lot of women in the Philippines and [specifically] in the finance industry start in junior roles, but the percentage of being able to get to the higher position is not as much because there are expectations for women. There’s a lot of expectations on caring for families and having responsibilities at home,” UBS Securities Philippines, Inc. Country Head Robrina L. Go said in an interview.

“In the finance industry and investment banking, it’s clear in the statistics that women in senior roles tend to drop off the more senior they become. You see a lot of junior roles, but they leave the industry for various reasons,” she added.

Ms. Go said corporate culture is largely skewed towards men, especially in finance, which is a male-dominated industry.

“A lot of corporates in the Philippines still do that. Men, when they get together — it’s intimidating. When women get a seat at the table, it’s up to the person to be relevant and be part of the conversations. Generally, women in the Philippines tend to be very meek. It’s an intimidating sector,” she said.

The labor force participation rate of females grew by just 56.1% in February, lower than the 77.1% growth rate for males, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

In terms of employment, there were 28.4 million males employed versus the 20.4 million females.

Meanwhile, a study by the International Labour Organization showed that 15% of working-age women globally would like to work but do not have a job, compared with 10.5% of men. It noted that this gender gap has remained almost unchanged from 2005 to 2022.

Ms. Go said there is a need to change workplace expectations, noting how some companies do not give women equal pay as they are less likely to demand for better compensation versus men.

“Companies just don’t give that equal pay because women don’t speak up,” she added.

She noted that this is not only occurring in the finance industry, but across all sectors.

“In corporates, there was a lot of talk in the past in terms of women empowerment and gender equality, but a lot of is just talk. Corporates are just a drop in the bucket. There’s a lot of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and middle market companies, where there’s a notion that women have maternity leave and all. That has to be factored in. Women generally work harder because they know they have multiple roles,” Ms. Go said.

“I think the government has done something about it by giving incentives, but corporations also need to be conscious about giving their own incentives. If you think of these big companies and big banks, they need to do more,” she added.

Ms. Go said for their part, UBS aims to create a more inclusive and empowering work environment.

“UBS, as a firm, prides itself as being a leader and model employer in terms of gender diversity, equity and inclusion. We have benchmarked ourselves consciously over the years to be an employer of choice with particular focus on hiring practices, behavior in the workplace, code of conduct,” she said.

This year marked the eighth consecutive year that UBS has been a part of the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index. In the Asia-Pacific region, more than 40% of the group’s employees are women. Over 35% of employees in roles at the director level or above are also women.

Four out of the 11 executive board members of the group are females, as well as four of the 13 board of directors.

“From the onset, during the hiring process, we are very conscious about the number or percentage of women that enter. We track them all the way to promotion to directors up. During the hiring process, we embraced having more people because we need to get women’s perspective,” Ms. Go said.

“We are also conscious of the fact that when a promotion assessment comes, we look at potential women leaders,” she added.

One of UBS’ initiatives is “All Bar None,” an employee network that aims to foster an open and inclusive working environment regardless of gender or race.

Another initiative by the group is having “male allies” or a set of male leaders that commit to learn more about gender equality and advocate for others to become allies as well.

“They can also become allies of the female network — they would have targeted action and perspectives to understand female problems. It’s really to encourage male leaders to consider the challenges [of women],” she added.

UBS also provides facilities and arrangements to support women, such as a mother’s room, flexible working arrangements, and accessible mental health and wellness programs.

Ms. Go said there is still “a lot of room” to improve inclusive leadership in the industry.

“Men should be able to say women can do this job better. Have I experienced where I do my job better than the other guy and he didn’t like it? Yes, I have. When you have a supportive board or management, being able to acknowledge that maybe women can do the job better is part of the solution,” she said.

“For young women, I always encourage them to not be stuck at their desk and see and experience the workplace as much as they can. Go out and see for yourself what’s out there so you can identify and find your place. You need to be comfortable and confident,” she added.