Aviva has taken new measures to combat sexism among staff and dismissed male employees where their behaviour has fallen short of expectations, its chief executive Amanda Blanc has told the Sexism in the City inquiry.
Appearing before MPs yesterday (13 December), Blanc said the insurance company has acted to ensure women do not feel they need to leave the organisation as a result of inappropriate behaviour at work, by making sure complaints are dealt with confidentially.
The Sexism in the City inquiry was launched earlier this year by the Treasury committee and aims to determine how harassment and misogyny in the financial services sector can be addressed.
MPs said they were “shocked” by the evidence the inquiry had received so far, which included examples of sexual assault, bullying, sexual harassment and a climate where perpetrators were able to act with impunity. In some cases, women have given up their careers in the sector.
Blanc, who is also the Treasury’s Women in Finance Champion, told MPs that there had been cases at Aviva where “the woman has stayed and the man has gone” after investigations into allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
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She said she had been “inundated” with hundreds of messages from women in the financial services sector who wanted to share their experiences when she posted on LinkedIn about her appearance at the inquiry.
“Some of the stories were absolutely appalling, around unwanted advances… being followed to hotel rooms and things like that,” she said.
Blanc had also heard examples of women being told their pregnancies were “inconvenient” for their employer.
She said: “Every single firm has to be accountable for any allegations such as this, and the women in the firm have to know that there is a process for speaking up, that that process will be acted on, that everything will be investigated, and that the actual person that did the bad will leave the organisation, not the women.
“I think we are dealing with a societal issue which is definitely amplified in financial services.”
She added that getting more women into senior roles would mean that “a lot of this behaviour will go away”.
Last year, Blanc publicly called out comments that were targeted at female board members at its AGM. Blanc was told she was “not the man for the job”, while another asked whether she should be “wearing trousers”.
Nishma Gosrani, a partner at Bain & Company’s financial services practice, told MPs that senior managers needed to take bold actions to address unacceptable behaviour.
“I think boards have a role to play in challenging chief executives and executive committees, but also looking at the skillset of boards and actually [having] some cultural expertise across boards, not just financial expertise, will be instrumental in making some of the changes,” she said.
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