Are banks giving preferential treatment to female technologists?

The shortage of senior females in banking technology roles is well-documented and, across the IT sector, their numbers appear to be dwindling. In the financial sector, however, firms are taking an under-the-radar approach to bolstering the ranks of women.

Our own figures suggest that there are currently women comprise just 19% of candidates working in the financial IT and, like other areas in banking, their numbers thin out in the senior ranks. However, while few firms are willing to commit to hiring expensive senior technologists currently, top female candidates are being considered, according to specialist banking IT headhunters.

“Big banks are overt about the need to recruit more women into technology and, while most are struggling to get headcount for almost any speculative senior hire, they will create space for a good female candidate,” says one headhunter who declined to be named.

There are, of course, a handful of women in senior technology roles. Michelle Trogni is group CIO at UBS, Natasha Davydova is managing director of group technology and operations at Deutsche Bank, Sarah Wilkinson is head of HSBC technology services transformation and Angela Heward is global CIO at VTB Capital. However, for all these high-profile positions, banks are still struggling to attract senior female technologists.

“There’s a reasonable supply of women within business relationship management or programme delivery roles, but women in very technical roles – architectural design or hands on development work are still hard to find and highly sought after,” adds another financial IT headhunter.

Research by recruiters Harvey Nash suggests that there are now fewer women in senior technology roles than two years ago. Since 2010, the proportion of female CIOs has fallen from 12% to just 9% and 30% of IT firms it surveyed said they had no senior women employees.

"Less and less women are attracted into that space so you wind up creating a self-fulfilling prophecy," said Anna Frazzetto, senior vice president of international technology solutions, at Harvey Nash. "It's not a very welcoming arena to be in."

The idea of women taking time out to raise children, and therefore losing out on promotions and career opportunities, is both an easy excuse and relatively hackneyed, suggest recruiters.

“A number of senior female technologists in banking that we’ve worked with are the primary breadwinners in their family, and are often supporting a family and husband who is not in a high-earning job,” says Paul Bennie, director of IT in finance headhunters Bennie MacLean.

While some will welcome the news that women are being actively targeted for senior IT positions, others are not as keen on any form of positive discrimination.

“It’s still a controversial issue,” says Kuljeet Chahal, managing director of diversity focused headhunters Vivacity Search & Selection. “Some people are pro-quota, asking for a minimum 30% of women in finance, but the majority of women I meet in the City want to progress their career on merit.”