"Glass Ceiling in Banking"

Introduction
Recent surveys show that half of British work force are female but still at
this time males are occupying the leading positions of the major work
force. In a specific research it is seen that among 800 individuals(405
women and 408 men), about 50 percentage are women in workforce and
among those 50 percentage, 32 percentage are mangers and only 28
percentage of them are holding the position of CEO (Company Executive
Officer).These numbers seem unreal but the worst situation is in banking;
where the number of women who are managers are similar to the national
average 32 percent but only 11 percentage of UK female work force are
Corporate Managers and CEO's.This is a serious issue in a society which
strives for the full equality of genders. Only one in ten women occupy the
senior position and that is much lower than men(21 percent).I will try to
point out why this is the case.

Obstacles
Many obstacles are faced by women in this era where women are working
side by side with men. Women are facing obstacles and challenges in their
career and this was asked in a research where the 48 percent of females
and 36 percent of males agreed positively that women face obstacles.
These obstacles are commonly known as a glass ceiling.
These obstacles become much easier to notice as women progress in their
careers. Middle management in the UK cant agree on the glass ceiling in
banking as 61 percent of women thinks it does exist in banking while
only 23 percent of men seem to agree with their female colleagues.
One reason for this issue is that women have a personal relationships i.e.
family matters that they have to attend. Almost 72 percent of women see
their superiors as an obstacle as men tend to promote their male
colleague over the female ones even though they are not necessarily
more skillful or better workers. These women believe that the large
number of men at the senior positions stopped advancements for women

as women are taking career more seriously and advancing in skills in this
pre -dominated male environment.

Problems
One of the main problem in banking are the lacking of flexible working
hours, the problem with which both male and female greatly concur(76
percent women and 66 percent men).People who hold senior positions in
banking do not like the idea of working remotely i.e. working from home.
This type of view hurts women the most as they might have to bring up
their children. So they have to work at home and their career is the one to
suffer. They do not make enough progress at the job so instead of them
men take their position and they stagnate at the same job for years. Many
companies do offer this as a way to do your job but still not all the culture
can not fully grasp and embrace this type of doing business.

People try to find someone to idolize so they can find their path easier.
Women believe that there are not enough women to look up to at the
senior women. Unlike man those women had to give up their personal life
i.e. creating a family due to their career. Most women do not approve this
as they yearn to become mothers so the companies and employers have
to do all of their best to create ideal conditions for this to happen.

Solutions
The organizational structure and the culture itself needs to be changed so
we can have more women in senior positions more importantly in banking
section. Top managers have to change the way of their thinking so young
talented women cannot be halted from reaching a senior position which
clearly something they want to be.
It is even more important to educate our young staff how to judge an
employees professional capability so tutoring them in a right way not to
discriminate someone depending on their gender. The establishment of
mentors for young women is also needed so they can learn from more
experience co-workers and progress rapidly in their careers. Flexible
working hours are need to be allowed and companies have to realize that
a happy and fulfilled employee makes a happy employee. This policy will
especially allow to women to have a role of a mother and a CEO at the
same time. This brings us to the last argument and those are female role

models. When all of these things are completed we can have a happy
mother who is a CEO and all women will gladly look at at her.

Background (The Banking problem)

In Banking(528,00 employees) 55 percent of employees are female but
even still males hold the leading positions in this sector(only 11 percent of
females are in senior positions).We know that 38 per cent of men in
banking have higher education in comparison to twenty percent of
women. Only 46 percent of female post graduate chose banking in
academic year 2009/20010 and this is defiantly duet to a low number of
women as senior managers in banking. In the recent survey almost 46
percent of junior staff are female in comparison to 21 percent of men. The
problem is that this is an administrative department where women work
as secretaries, in customer service and sales roles while men occupy the
technical department which brings them promotions to a higher ranking
and higher paying job. This is shown in the survey in which only 9 percent
of women who were interviewed reached senior positions in comparison to
26 of their male counter parts.
We can see from this statistical figures that there was an increasing
number of women in the banking sector but still we have to make the
genders equal by promoting more women in higher position and giving
them their deserving opportunity to expand their potentiality. If we give
more chances to women in banking they will defiantly get to those top
positions. Society needs to apply the steps which were mentioned before
so with that and a little push, women will take their rightful place in
banking section.