Lehman Brothers last month launched the Lehman Brothers Centre for Women in Business in association with the London Business School. The aim is to understand the issues involved in recruiting and retaining women for top management positions. Women are, after all, half the graduate population but many perceive banking as a profession unfriendly to their sex – the publicity from recent sexual discrimination court cases has not helped – all the way from the gender bias of men recruiting in their same image, to the difficulties of taking a career break, generally due to family reasons, and rejoining at the same level.
Shameful record
Information on the numbers of senior women in banking is scarce as most banks, including Lehman Brothers, admit they do not publish the data because the numbers are inadequate.
Some banks, though, have done better than others, with the UK’s Lloyds TSB an outstanding example. One third of the bank’s executive management team are female, including the head of UK retail banking, a unit responsible for 40% of the bank’s pre-tax profit. Meanwhile, 38% of its general managers are female.
The bank ascribes its record – better than most banks but one with which it is not satisfied – to support from the top, namely chief executive Eric Daniels, and to creative recruitment. The directors hassle recruiters, who usually tend to come up with more traditional male options, to provide qualified women for their lists. Diana Brightmore-Armour, for instance, the very successful head of corporate banking, had not been a banker. Instead, she had been director of treasury and planning at Coca-Cola in Atlanta. Her unit at Lloyds TSB has delivered outstanding results in her two-year stint.
The new Lehman Brothers centre is an admirable idea. Perhaps, though, the investment bank should have started by looking at its very name. Women, as far as The Banker knows, cannot be ‘brothers’.
