HM Treasury has hit its target of 50% of senior civil service posts being held by women.
Reporting progress made against its targets, Treasury noted female representation in senior management roles had grown from 43% when it signed up to the Women in Finance Charter in March 2016 to 50% as of March 2022.
It added that 60% of the Treasury’s executive management board were women.
However, the Treasury acknowledged it continues to have have imbalances at more junior grades where there are greater numbers of staff – women are over represented at grades B-C and under represented at grades E and E2.
Organisations signed up to the charter pledge to promote gender diversity by having one member of their senior executive team who is responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion; setting internal targets for gender diversity in their senior management; publishing progress annually against these targets in reports on their website and having an intention to ensure the pay of the senior executive team is linked to delivery against these internal targets on gender diversity.
Maternity leave and career breaks
The Treasury revealed that its gender pay gap action plan covers activities such as supporting women to access allowances they are entitled to and ensuring career progression opportunities are highlighted when women are on maternity and career breaks.
The Treasury added it is also aiming to improve and maintain the representation of women in finance, particularly for the pipeline into the senior civil service and supporting women returning to work after career breaks and/or maternity leave to ensure those away from work have access to the same opportunities for progression.
Another of its key priorities is engaging with women at the Treasury on bullying, harassment and discrimination with the aim of strengthening work to promote reporting and building a more inclusive culture.
The Treasury committed to ensuring its bulk recruitment drives achieve equal representation of women, including in its graduate development programme.
It plans to work closely with networks, engaging them about assessments throughout the campaign to ensure it understands the impacts and addresses these.
In addition, the Treasury pointed out that it considers adverse impact at every stage in the process before defining benchmarks, “to ensure we are not setting a benchmark which disproportionately rejects different characteristics”. In 2021 57% of women passed.
The Treasury cited its board level champion for women as a sign of its commitment at senior level, adding they played an important role in progressing and supporting the changes it would like to see on gender equality and demonstrating commitment to creating a thriving culture for all colleagues.
It will continue with its buddying and mentoring scheme for women returning to work after a time away and offering career development opportunities for women in addition to holding tailored events.
