THE OUTSIDER: It's getting harder to be a mother in banking
One of the things the City seems to get wrong most often is women.
Don't misunderstand me. I'm not one of those supposedly liberal-minded interventionists who like to tell everyone who to employ in their businesses and dictate quotas for ensuring diversity.
But there is a problem here and we are not getting it right. On the contrary, we are failing consistently to tap into the broadest possible talent pool and particularly so in the highest revenue earning areas of the business. A competitive business like investment banking simply can't afford that.
Women are different. The diversity industry seems to ignore that. They have babies (and thank goodness - having been present at the birth of mine, I'm convinced the human race would be extinct if men had to do it). But that needs to be not just accommodated but embraced and put to good advantage.
When a woman goes on maternity leave, it is not realistic for her clients not to be covered by someone else, and when she returns, she may need time to get up to speed again. Her priorities may have changed and she may find the more than full time demands of her former existence as an investment banker unattractive and unacceptable. Or not. She may come back with fire in her belly, never wanting to see another nappy again and ready to conquer the world. Or possibly somewhere in between.
Think banks are accommodating? Think again
None of this should matter if we plan for it. The wife of a friend recently had her second child. She has traditionally earned more than her husband and was enthusiastic and ambitious about her career. When she had her first child she used the time at home to study, the firm hooked her up with Bloomberg, she stayed in touch with clients and met with some while on maternity leave, and when she came back hit the ground running. All of that happened not because the firm concerned was particularly enlightened, but because she wanted it and it made sense for the business.
This time around things are different. The firm has actually had a pretty good year, but it has shrunk and the climate internally is tougher and less sympathetic. People are not as interested in using a little creative thinking and flexibility to be accommodating and preserve a valuable asset - one of their better performers who has been loyal and productive.
This time around she is on her own, even though she is now more senior. Her husband jokes that she is now the Chief Domestic Officer, running the house and the nanny and finding that two children are more than twice as much work as one. She wonders how realistic it will be to return to her old role, there are elements of guilt kicking in - friends describe themselves as 'full time mums' and talk about how important it is for a child to have a mother's full attention in the first three years - and she is contemplating giving up her career, or at least putting it on hold.
I was saddened for her and disappointed for the business. As far as I'm concerned she is just too good to walk away, and the input of people like her too valuable for the industry. It cannot be right that men alone take all the decisions on the trading floor. People joke that if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters the firm might still be around.
Stop thinking like a chauvinist
We won't stop a loss of talent by legislation. Positive discrimination to achieve quotas is likely to be particularly counter-productive. What we need is a change in attitude and above all in expectations.
There are brilliant senior bankers who are women, but they stand out because they are relatively few in number (and I don't mean in HR or support functions - I'm talking revenue generators who are among the firm's top earners). Based on absolute levels of talent and ability that cannot be right. But we accept it because it's the way it's always been.
Well, we don't have to. There should be no limits, either in ambition or expectation. Unspoken assumptions and silent complicity are the enemies here. Limits are like ghosts, real only for as long as we believe in them - and well within the ability of all of us to change. As I write this, I don't yet know if the Chief Domestic Officer is going to come back and plan on becoming the Chief Executive Officer, but you can tell what I'm hoping for.
David Charters' latest book, 'Where Egos Dare', is published by Elliott and Thompson, price 6.99.
