The recent tribunal case brought by banker Stacey Macken shows that sexual discrimination remains a problem in London’s financial district, despite the shockwaves from the #MeToo movement. 

Macken was handed a rare victory at a London employment tribunal last month, after claiming she was discriminated against due to her gender, and paid hundreds of thousands of pounds less than a male co-worker with the same job title at BNP Paribas. 

She also claimed she was subject to persistent harassment, having been rudely dismissed by bosses, subject to crude stories and targeted by a prank that involved leaving a witch’s hat on her desk.  While the harassment allegations were dismissed, they detailed the kind of behaviour that some women still tolerate on a daily basis, but are rarely publicised due to strict non-disclosure agreements. 

“No one really understands the scale of the issue because the majority of people are too afraid to report discrimination and harassment,” Macken told the Guardian. “ If you are brave enough to raise an issue to your employer, then it might not be investigated properly and you could be blamed, gagged and lose your job as a result.” 

While progress has been marked in some parts of the City, critics believe change has been slow and uneven.  It means milestones like Royal Bank of Scotland’s appointment of Alison Rose as its first female chief executive, have come within months of City institutions such as insurance market Lloyd’s of London and accountants KPMG and Deloitte being rocked by allegations of bullying and sexual harassment. 

A recent survey of workers at Lloyd’s of London put those allegations into numbers, finding that 500 of its respondents either suffered or observed sexual harassment in the past 12 months alone. 

Gender pay gap reports have also revealed that the average woman earns just 77p for every pound pocketed by male counterparts in the insurance and finance industry. 

And Macken is not the only voice.  One woman with 16 years’ experience, who spoke to the Guardian on condition of anonymity, said she left her last job at a financial services consulting firm due in part to how poorly women were treated. “ It was a little bit like stepping back in time.” 

She said men were regularly favoured over female candidates, but that colleagues would alert each other when an attractive woman was being interviewed so they could walk past and “gawk at her”.  Co-workers would also make up fake female team members in presentations to more progressive clients, in hope of appearing more diverse and winning their business. 

“My experience has been lip service because it looks good, to the extent that female pictures were just put in presentation decks so that it looked like we had senior females in the firm when we didn’t.” 

But she stressed this is not representative of the entire industry, noting that some firms like high street banks have had to reform more quickly than asset managers or consultancies, due to greater public scrutiny. 

Vivienne Artz, president of the Women in Banking & Finance network, credited the #MeToo movement for empowering women to call out historic behaviour, and said the dismantling of the Presidents Club in 2018 was a sign of progress.  The Presidents Club was a men-only charity dinner – attended by senior figures from business and politics – at which hired “hostesses” were allegedly groped, sexually harassed and propositioned by guests. 

Artz also applauded the Financial Conduct Authority for confirming that sexual harassment is considered misconduct under City regulations.  She said it was part of a “sea change” in the way women are treated in the City – at least compared to the 1980s when the organisation was first formed. 

Her views were echoed by another frontline banker, who started her career at an investment bank in Europe in the mid-1990s.  She told the Guardian most women working on trading or sales desks at the time were constantly faced with unwanted touching or kissing by male colleagues, who often took clients to strip clubs and openly watched porn in the office. 

Times have changed, but she still worries for junior staff today. “ Young ladies are still exposed to potential danger, and when I have my juniors or mentees, I do tell them ‘you have to make sure you don’t put yourself at risk,’ because now it’s done behind closed doors.” 

Macken said regulators should force firms to keep a register of harassment and discrimination allegations, and be given powers to investigate firms with the highest number of complaints.  More also needs to be done to protect employees when they raise concerns, she said. 

A spokesperson for banking body UK Finance said the industry had a zero-tolerance policy to discrimination of any form but admitted there was still more work to be done. 

“You could only say that enough has been done when the complaints stop,” Artz said. “ And the complaints haven’t stopped – they’re still there.”