From Pioneers to Leaders: Accelerating Equality in Banking
- Shona Matthews
It wasn’t until 2016 that for the first time in the long history of the Chartered Banker Institute membership moved towards a female majority. That’s a full century after women first started working in banks! 1916 saw women taking up employment in UK banks to fill vacancies left by men fighting in the First World War. Initially, the Institute’s examinations were not open to women. However, by 1919 our records show that female bank clerks were studying and attaining the same awards as their male colleagues (at the time banks awarded £5 to individuals successfully achieving Associateship).
Taking three years to approve the decision to accept female students might seem slow, especially in light of this year’s International Women’s Day theme – Accelerate Action. Yet this decision did open a pathway to professional banking education for women, which is significant. Still, it wasn’t until the 1980s that parity in the number of women taking Institute examinations was achieved. This delay was partly due to the types of banking roles to which women were recruited, with promotions to management rare and often actively discouraged. This meant there was little incentive for women in banking to study. They often back-filled clerical roles while their male colleagues were able to seek opportunities at higher grades. Today, we still see evidence of this ‘two tier’ system in our membership data, with fewer female members at higher grades of membership and studying our more advanced qualifications.
However, as the Institute celebrates 150 years and being optimistic that things are still moving forwards, I approached two of our female Fellows to ask about their experiences.
Carol McCunn was made a Fellow of the Institute in 2024. She has enjoyed a varied banking career, not to mention significant academic successes. Now the Credit Delivery Director for NatWest Group, I asked for her observations on strategies that have helped to accelerate gender equality. Her response was not what I expected – but very insightful and reminded me of our series last year on inclusive leadership. Carol highlighted a policy decision introduced by a former female CEO that granted male colleagues six months of fully paid paternity leave with the option to extend this to twelve months at reduced pay. A century after women started entering the male dominated workforce, this policy placed male colleagues in the same position as their female counterparts. It also encouraged hiring managers to evaluate male and female applicants on the same basis. “It has proved very popular and has multi-faceted benefits to the organisation and to family life. The paternity leave is covered by secondments which gives great opportunity to break into new roles in a low-risk way and to increase one’s network and skills.” Carol believes that the popularity of this policy, which she feels has been revolutionary in levelling the playing field at her employer, signposts a different direction to approach some gender equality issues.
It is interesting to see the similarities in the response to the same question from Linita Kim Currun, who in 2024 became our very first female Fellow located in Mauritius. Linita is another woman who has achieved both professional and academic success balancing this alongside many personal commitments. She is Head of Retail Banking at SBM Bank Mauritius and like Carol, Linita also highlights the importance of actively creating opportunities as an effective strategy for accelerating gender equality. “Embedding inclusivity into both talent development and customer solutions — whether through leadership programmes, financial inclusion initiatives, or targeted banking solutions — the impact is significant.”
SBM introduced the ‘Bright-Her Future Initiative’ which provides female entrepreneurs with tailored financial products, business advisory support, and networking opportunities. “By recognising the unique challenges women face in accessing credit and scaling their businesses, we have been able to bridge gaps in financial literacy, build confidence, and help them grow sustainable enterprises.” Linita says that the impact has been profound with higher engagement from female entrepreneurs, increased access to capital, and a growing pipeline of women-led businesses contributing to the economy. She believes that to accelerate such initiatives not only requires organisations embedding gender-inclusive policies into their product design and service delivery but should see them partner with ecosystem players such as regulators, FinTechs, and women’s advocacy groups to broaden reach. “We need to leverage data analytics to identify financial barriers women face and develop more targeted solutions. The key to success lies in making gender equality a business priority rather than an add-on.”
Both Carol and Linita are strong advocates for the importance of mentoring to achieve inclusivity. Linita adds that equally important is sponsorship, where senior leaders actively advocate for talented women, ensuring they have visibility and access to key opportunities. “This should be done in a fair manner, to ensure we don’t leave anyone behind.”
Carol observes that the best mentors act as neutral sounding boards. “Experience can provide a wider range of solutions to a given problem and mentors give you access to 20+ extra years of experience. And the regular check-ins help limit procrastination.”
Maybe the difference between those first pioneering women forging a career in banking and the experiences of women like Carol and Linita in banking today, is a support network. Carol observes that access to an established network is priceless. “It still matters who you know! I have benefitted from some excellent introductions for a coffee chat so that I can share my aspirations with people I wouldn’t usually have access to - this makes things happen and keeps you honest to your plans for progress.” She believes these top attributes for good mentors would work equally well for any gender and notes that great progress has been made in the last twenty years to promote female leaders in banking. “Modern leadership benefits from a more consultative approach that I hope will mean further progress for women.”
Linita’s experience also highlights how both formal and informal mentorship can be powerful tools in accelerating women’s careers in banking. “At SBM Bank, we encourage both male and female colleagues to support the advancement of women in leadership by creating structured mentorship programmes that connect emerging female leaders with senior executives; encouraging peer-to-peer mentoring where women at all levels support each other’s growth; and challenging biases in hiring and promotions by ensuring diverse shortlists for leadership roles. We also focus on providing leadership training at all levels, reinforcing that leadership is not just about seniority but about influence and impact.” Linita proudly shares the fact that she is the first female Head of Retail Banking at SBM. Before this, she was the first woman to head the bank’s Service Excellence Department, a new department established under her leadership in 2019. “By fostering an environment where mentorship is the norm rather than the exception, we can accelerate the progress of women in leadership and build a stronger, more diverse banking sector.”
Dipping back into the history books, it’s clear that it took decades before women were even considered for the types of roles Carol and Linita hold today, despite how well they performed. The interwar period seems to signal an important change with the introduction of new technologies – telephones, typewriters and most interestingly, electronic-ledger machine. It became clear that female clerks were far more capable at using this new equipment than their male counterparts. Could it be that proficiency in these new technologies slowed their career progression?
Being able to adapt to innovation is surely a positive, but could it mean that women get stuck implementing new technology while their male counterparts advance to the next big thing? I asked our fellows for their views on the role of technology and its use to accelerate gender parity. Linita acknowledges that as we look ahead, technology and innovation will be key drivers in closing gender gaps in banking, both within organisations and in the way female clients are served.
One of the most promising developments, she feels, is the rise of digital financial services. “This has significantly improved financial inclusion for women. For example, mobile banking and AI-driven credit scoring have enabled women — who may have limited collateral or credit history — to access financing and grow their businesses.”
By building on these successes Linita observes that banks could accelerate gender parity by investing in digital financial literacy programmes targeted at women. Examples include leveraging AI and big data to develop gender-responsive banking solutions that account for women’s unique financial behaviours and needs, and promoting workplace flexibility through technology, ensuring women can balance career and personal responsibilities without being disadvantaged.
Carol also reflects on this ability to work remotely as groundbreaking for moving towards parity. With more men now taking a greater share of childcare and other caring roles, this flexibility also facilitates more women to stay in the workforce who may have previously felt pressures to leave and care for family. Carol highlights a recent event run by her employer. “We wanted a panel with male and female representatives from each generation: Baby Boomers, GenX, Millennials and GenZ. We had to change the format as there were no female Baby Boomers available in our business area. The male boomer view was interesting and reminded us that when he was forging his career the hours were 8am to 6pm in the office and that he rarely saw his children apart from weekends.”
The next technology development that will impact is no doubt AI. Carol already sees the capability of this to complete routine tasks like data entry and research. There are echoes of the past here too as these historic roles, at lower grades in the bank will be removed. Her hope is that this leaves individuals with more fulfilling value adding roles in the future, and an improved ratio of female to male at higher grades.
In Mauritius, Linita shares this view. For her, innovation should be embraced while staying committed to the principles of inclusivity. This will help ensure that the next fifty years of banking create even more opportunities for women—both as professionals and as customers.
Linita offers a further perspective which I think many of us can relate to that throughout her career, she has had to balance professional responsibilities with family life and professional and further studies. “I am proud to be the only woman Fellow Chartered Banker in Mauritius. However, as a Mauritian woman with culture deeply rooted from India and Africa, we are often recognised mainly through the identities of the males in our family – daughter, sister, wife and even mother.”
We've made considerable progress towards gender parity since those first pioneering women took their banking examinations. As we celebrate International Women's Day and 150 years of the Chartered Banker Institute, let's focus on accelerating our understanding and appreciation of the strengths that diverse experiences bring to banking. It’s equally important to recognise and support policies that empower male colleagues to take on more supportive roles, not only as professional peers, but also as sons, brothers, husbands and fathers. By doing so, we can foster a more inclusive environment where everyone has the opportunity to thrive, regardless of gender or background.
Footnote: In preparing this article, I am grateful to have had access to a pre-publication copy of ‘A Credit to Their Profession’ - a forthcoming history of the Chartered Banker Institute, commissioned to mark the Institute’s 150th anniversary and authored by Prof. Charles Munn, OBE, FCBI.