OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERS TO LEADERSHIP FOR FEMALE FINANCE LEADERS IN THE UK

Olufunmilayo Elizabeth Babafemi

Abstract


Despite legal and societal advancements that have increased the presence of women in the finance sector, the representation of women in finance director roles remains limited. In FTSE 100 companies, men still hold finance director positions at a rate seven times higher than women, a trend reflective of the broader industry. This qualitative inquiry delves into the factors contributing to the success factors and obstacles to leadership faced by female finance directors in the United Kingdom. By conducting interviews with accomplished female finance directors, the study aims to identify the factors that prevent and enable females to become leaders in the finance industry. Notably, this research identifies enduring social and cultural hurdles obstructing female progress, and how they can be supported as they progress their career. A significant finding emerges: many interviewed women endorse individuals who align with their assertive work values, which often align with masculine traits. Females have to conform to a working environment and practices, and this impacts negatively on their social life, job satisfaction and identity. Given the target-driven nature of finance, the prospect of a radical top-down transformation is generally seen as unlikely. Consequently, female leaders face limitations in their capacity to serve as "gatekeepers" for advancing the careers of fellow women. Recommendations include a departure from the performance-centric approach entrenched in finance.

 

Article visualizations:

Hit counter


Keywords


female leaders, leadership finance, gender equality, targets. diversity, inclusion, performance targets

Full Text:

PDF

References


Alvesson, M. and Spicer, A. (2012). Critical leadership studies: The case for critical performativity. Human Relations. 65(3), 367-390.

Babafemi, Olufunmilayo Elizabeth (2023). Opportunities and barriers to leadership for female financial leaders in the United Kingdom (PhD Thesis: University of Hertfordshire).

Braun, V., Clarke, V. and Gray, D. (2017). Innovations in qualitative methods. The Palgrave handbook of critical social psychology, 243-266.

Birkinshaw, J., Brannen, M. Y. and Tung, R. L. (2011). From a distance and generalizable to up close and grounded: Reclaiming a place for qualitative methods in international business research. Journal of International Business Studies, 42, 573-581.

Bowles, H. R., Thomason, B. and Bear, J. B. (2018). Reconceptualizing what and how women negotiate for career advancement. Academy of Management Journal. 62(6), 1645-1671

Carian, E. K. and Johnson, A. L. (2019). The Agency Myth: Persistence in Individual Explanations for Gender Inequality. Social Problems. 8, 4-15.

Cheung, F. M. and Halpern, D. F. (2010). Women at the top: Powerful leaders define success as work + family in a culture of gender. American Psychologist, 65(3).

Dawson, T. (2018). Theories of discrimination. Journal of Gender, Class, and Power. 21(4), 19-54.

Derks, B., Van Laar, C. and Ellemers, N. (2009). Working for the self or working for the group: How self- versus group affirmation affects collective behaviour in low-status groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 96(1), 150-183.

Eagly, A.H. and Wood, W. (2011). Social role theory. Handbook of theories in social psychology, 2, 458-476.

Fondas N. (2000). ‘Women on boards of directors: gender bias or power threat?’ In Burke, R. and Mattis, M. (Eds.) Women on corporate board of directors. Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Gadhia, J. (2016). HM Treasury and Virgin Money, Empowering Productivity: Harnessing the Talents of Women in Financial Services. Retrieved 1 March 2023 https://uk.virginmoney.com/virgin/assets/pdf/Virgin-Money-Empowering-Productivity-Report.pdf.

Gipson, A. N., Pfaff, D. L., Mendelsohn, D. B., Catenacci, L. T. and Burke, W. W. (2017). Women and leadership: Selection, development, leadership style, and performance. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. 53(1), 32-65.

Greenacre, L. (2014). Self-confidence, and the ability to influence. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal. 18(2) 169-180.

Jackson, S. (2019). Coaching women towards authenticity: An appropriate workplace environment. International Journal of Evidence-Based Coaching and Mentoring. 17(2) pp. 64-78.

Karelaia, N. and Guillén, L. (2014). Me, a woman, and a leader: Positive social identity and identity conflict. Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes. 125(2) p. 204.

Kirsch, A. (2021). Revolution From Above? Female Directors’ Equality-Related Actions in Organizations. Business & Society, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00076503211001843

Mavin, S. (2008) Queen Bees, Wannabees and Afraid to Bees: No More Best Enemies for Women in Management? British Journal of Management. 19(s1) pp. S75-S84.

Ibarra, H., Ely, R. and Kolb, D. (2013) Women rising: The unseen barriers. Harvard Business Review. 91(9) pp. 60-66.

Irvine, S., Clark, H., Ward, M. and Francis-Devine, B. (2022) Women and the Economy – House of Commons Library. https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06838/SN06838.pdf

Kee, H. J. (2006). Glass ceiling or sticky floor? Exploring the Australian gender pay gap. Economic Record. 82, 408-427.

Keller, S. (2018). Successfully transitioning to new leadership roles. Retrieved 21 January 2023. McKinsey and Co. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/successfully-transitioning-to-new-leadership-roles

Korn Ferry (2018). Executive women in finance Unique Challenges and Opportunities Retrieved from 1 March 2023 https://txwsw.com/docs/executive_women_in_finance.pdf

Kossek, E. and Lee, K. (2020). Creating Gender-Inclusive Organizations. University of Toronto Press.

Loiacono, E., Urquhart, C., Beath, C., Craig, A., Thatcher, J., Vogel, D. R. and Zigurs, I. (2013). Thirty Years and Counting: Do We Still Need the ICIS Women’s Breakfast? Communications of the Association for Information Systems. 33(1) 7, 345-268.

Martens, A., Johns, M., Greenberg, J. and Schimel, J. (2006). Combating stereotype threat: The effect of self-affirmation on women’s intellectual performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 42(2), 236-243.

Moen, H and Shin-Gap, Han (2009). Gendered careers: Life-course perspective. Rosanne Hertz and Nancy Mitchel Eds. Working Families: Transformation of the American Families. 42-74.

Mouzelis, N. (2008). Habitus and reflexivity: Restructuring Bourdieu's theory of practice. Sociological research online, 12(6), 123-128.

Neck, C. (2015). Disappearing women: Why do women leave senior roles in Finance? Australian Journal of Management. 40, 488-510.

Nentwich, J. C., Ozbilgin, M. F. and Tatli, A. (2015). Change agency as performance and embeddedness: Exploring the possibilities and limits of Butler and Bourdieu. Culture and Organization, 21(3), 235-250.

Office for National Statistics (2015). EMP04: Employment by Occupation, London. Office for National Statistics [Online] http://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/dataset

Office for National Statistics (2022). United Kingdom Survey on Pay Rates, 2023. London: ONS.

Rink, F., Stoker, J. I., Ryan, M. K., Steffens, N. K. and Nederveen Pieterse, A. (2019). Gender differences in how leaders determine succession potential: The role of interpersonal fit with followers. Frontiers in psychology (10)740-752.

Ross‐Smith, A. and Huppatz, K. (2010). Management, women, and gender capital. Gender, Work & Organization, 17(5), 547-566.

Roglish, Alison, Shemluck, Neda and D’Souza, Desiree (2021). Leadership, representation, and gender equity in financial services. Deloitte. Available from https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/insights/industry/financial-services/women-in-the-finance-industry.html [Accessed 24/09/2022].

Ryan, M. K. and Haslam, S. A. (2007). The glass cliff: Exploring the dynamics surrounding women’s appointment to precarious leadership positions. Academy of Management Review. 32, 549-572.

Sealy, R. (2010). Changing perceptions of meritocracy in senior women's careers. Gender in Management: An International Journal. 25, 184-197.

Staines, G. (1973). The Queen Bee syndrome. Penguin.

Steele, J. (2006). Children's Gender Stereotypes About Math: The Role of Stereotype Stratification 1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33(12), pp.2587-2606.

Saunders, M. N. and Townsend, K. (2016). Reporting and justifying the number of interview participants in organization and workplace research. British Journal of Management, 27(4), 836-852.

Uduwella, U. K. S. M. and Jayatilaka, M. W. A. P. (2019). Impact of glass ceiling on women career development in non-state banking sector in Colombo. Tropical Agricultural Research. 30(3), 106-108.

Watkins, M. and Smith, A. (2014). Importance of women's political skill in male-dominated organizations. Journal of Managerial Psychology (29), 206-222.

Whiting, R. H., Gammie, E. and Herbohn, K. (2015). Women and the prospects for partnership in professional accountancy firms. Accounting and Finance. 55. 575-605.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejhrms.v7i2.1685

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2024 European Journal of Human Resource Management Studies

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The research works published in this journal are free to be accessed. They can be shared (copied and redistributed in any medium or format) and\or adapted (remixed, transformed, and built upon the material for any purpose, commercially and\or not commercially) under the following terms: attribution (appropriate credit must be given indicating original authors, research work name and publication name mentioning if changes were made) and without adding additional restrictions (without restricting others from doing anything the actual license permits). Authors retain the full copyright of their published research works and cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.

Copyright © 2017-2023. European Journal Of Human Resource Management Studies (ISSN 2601-1972) is a registered trademark. All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library. All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and standards formulated by Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002), the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) and  Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyrights of the published research works are retained by authors.