The Treasury Committee has announced the launch of an inquiry into the barriers faced by women in finance.

MPs will explore the progress made in removing gender pay gaps and examine the role that firms, the government, and regulators should be playing in addressing sexual harassment and misogyny in the industry.

The Committee said that they would look at how the government and watchdogs can act as “gender diversity role models” and the ways they should make sure culture and policies support women’s progress in the field.

It added that the inquiry will identify whether careers in financial services should be marketed to a more diverse base of individuals.

The move follows a 2018 inquiry which called for firms to encourage the progression of women in finance by “abolishing 'alpha-male' cultures”, removing the stigma of flexible working with senior men leading by example, and encouraging firms to publish strategies for closing gender pay gaps.

The MPs will evaluate the industry’s progress on implementing those recommendations, as well as the impact of the Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter.

Harriet Baldwin MP, chair of the Treasury Committee, said that the inquiry will find out whether the culture in the sector has shifted at all over the past five years.

“As a Committee, we’d like to know whether women feel more supported in the financial services industry than at the time of the previous Committee’s inquiry five years ago,” said Harriett Baldwin MP, chair of the Treasury Committee. “We’ll be investigating if enough work has been done to build more supportive workplace cultures, how harassment and misogyny can be addressed, and the role the Government and regulator should play in role modelling behaviours.”

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