In May 2017, we signed the Women in Finance Charter, and pledged to improve the gender balance in our senior team. We said that by 2020, we’d aim to have women make up at least 40% of both our executive committee and our board.
Here @JacqB in our people team shares our yearly update on the progress we’ve made so far.
This is a great update.
A little bit worries me however:
As part of the initiative, we’re focusing on equipping people who identify as women at Monzo with the skills needed to make it to the top in finance and elsewhere.
Does this mean that you are purposefully not equipping men with the same skills?
Please excuse me if this is insensitive in any way, I’m interested in the ideas behind ‘positive discrimination’, having encountered it myself during job interviews when I identify as disabled.
Why 40%? Women make up 50% of people on the planet. Or didn’t you know that?
More men work in finance, therefore there is a smaller pool of women to choose from compared to men. You should never employ people (in this case, women) to tick boxes, you should employ the best people for the job.
Why there are less women than men in finance is a totally separate (but important) issue.
Sustainable growth over statistics.
Thanks for reading!
We’re recognising that people who identify as women often miss out on the opportunity to develop these skills, which contributes to there being fewer of us in leadership positions. So as well as focussing on hiring, we’re also up-skilling people internally to help us reach our goal.
And while the focus of this initiative will be on people who identify as women, everyone at Monzo is welcome to attend these talks and workshops, so there’s the opportunity for everyone to gain these skills.
Thank you for your reply 
It’s great to know everyone, regardless of gender, is free to attend 