Progress in UK industries: how does financial services compare?

The progress needed to facilitate gender equality in financial services is much discussed, from career advancement to the gender pay gap. But where does it stand among other industries across the UK, and is there anything we can learn from this?

According to the ONS UK Labour Force Survey, 16.7 million women aged 16 and over were in employment in the last three months of 2025, with the employment rate for women at 72.4%, compared to 77.6% for men. Of these women, 10.49 million were working full time and 6.22 million were working part time.

We examined which industries were leading the way in different areas, and how this compares to financial services.

Recruitment and the medical industry

In April of this year, the FCA revealed that just 18% of advisers are women, and 51% of multi-adviser firms do not have any women in adviser roles.

In March 2025, the General Medical Council (GMC) reported that, for the first time ever, more women were doctors than men, with 164,440 female doctors to 164,195 male doctors, while 57.7% of GPs were women.

For a profession that has traditionally been heavily male dominated, this shift was marked as a milestone, especially since women only accounted for a third (33%) of registered doctors as recently as 2000.

According to the GMC, one of the driving factors of this shift is that there have been more women than men enrolled as medical students across the UK since 2018/19, underlining that education and recruitment is crucial to greater representation for women in the workforce.

Career progression: utilities, media and retail 

However, the ACT’s Advancing Women in Financial Services: Productivity and Merit report states that “women today make up roughly half the entry-level workforce in finance,” suggesting that the larger issue in financial services is the “significantly smaller fraction of [women] executives in most institutions.”

The main reasons for this are the “persistent barriers that block women’s progression into higher paying, decision-making roles,” thus “causing them to leave the sector,” which results in “a stark gender gap.”

According to the Women in Finance Charter’s annual review in March 2026, the average representation for women in senior management across its signatories is currently 37%, edging up one percentage point each year since the Charter’s launch ten years ago, with the exception of 2021.

While this is a step in the right direction, a study by Fox & Partners in September 2025 found that women make up just 9.1% of CEOs in financial services businesses.

So what can financial services do to not only retain more of the women who join the industry, but also to ensure equal access to career progression?

According to a 2024 article by The Telegraph, the utilities industry, including water suppliers and electricity providers, employs women in 41.5% of leadership positions and 42.2% of board seats.

There has been an active push to offer mentorship programmes in the utilities space. Women in Utilities offers its mentoring programme to women at all stages of their careers, as well as workshops, networking events, and a dedicated development programme.

Media is another industry in which women have better pathways to senior management, with 41.1% of leadership positions and 42.5% of board seats being filled by women. One primary reason cited for this is the necessity for women in senior positions to understand and relate to the vast number of women consuming the majority of UK media. This then begs the question as to why there are so few women working as mortgage advisers, when women make up around 60% of advised client relationships.

The UK media industry also has several initiatives to support women, including Women in Film and TV (WFTV), which delivers programmes on leadership and production management, as well as bursaries and UK-wide mentoring schemes. In addition, Rise Women in Broadcast provides programmes in outreach, leadership development and career progression to C-suite level, while also offering an awards programme and mentoring schemes.

Thirdly, many businesses in the retail industry, in which 39.8% of leadership positions are held by women, have been noted for their adaptability, updating policies to accommodate parental leave and introducing initiatives to help staff return to work after maternity leave, highlighting how flexibility allows for many women with caregiving responsibilities to obtain a better work/life balance, which in turn gives them more freedom to advance in their careers.

Initiatives to support women in male dominated industries

While there is still a lot of work to do across many male dominated industries, these are some of the initiatives in place to encourage better recruitment and career progression for women.

In the IT and technology sector, PwC’s Her Tech Talent and the charity Tech She Can work towards “changing the perception of what a career in technology offers,” in order to encourage women “to be equal participants in creating and developing the new tech businesses, products and services that shape our world.”

Furthermore, It’s Her Future is a KPMG-wide programme designed to encourage more women to join the tech sector and to support their career progression. Run by a collaborative group, the programme aims to demystify the industry and the perception that it’s only for “established ‘techies’”. This is done through mentoring, training, events, networking opportunities, and even the chance to serve as non-executive members of boards.

In gaming, another heavily male dominated industry, Women in Games works to make the sector fairer and more equitable for women and girls. The non-profit organisation has a manifesto and hosts monthly social networking gatherings, as well as a range of events designed to provide support for women in the industry.

Meanwhile, Construction for Women provides support in an industry where women represent just 15% of the total workforce and only 1% of the manual workforce. The initiative includes a 12-week training programme, STEM outreach and taster days offered to students, and mentoring schemes.

The annual Women in Construction (WIC) awards, hosted by Design and Build UK, also provides a space to celebrate the achievements of women across the industry and those contributing to making it a more inclusive space.  

How does the gender pay gap compare across industries?

In February 2026, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) reported a gender pay gap of 27.2% in the finance and insurance sector, meaning that on average, women worked for free for 99 days versus the 47-day average. This is the widest gap of any industry in the UK and is 14.4% higher than the average pay gap of 12.8%.

However, the gender pay gap paints a concerning picture across the majority of UK industries. At the end of 2025, the ONS found that 95% of UK industries and 78% of all job roles have gender pay gaps that favour men, including 65% of women-dominated occupations.

Full-time care workers, of which 73% of the workforce are women, is the only role to have a gender pay gap tipped in favour of women at -1.6%. However, the TUC’s latest findings revealed that the gender pay gap across healthcare and social work is still at 12.8% in favour of men.

Education is another sector that, despite 71% of jobs being held by women, has a gender pay gap of 17% in favour of men, meaning that women in this industry work free for 62 days.

It’s clear that every industry has its own successes and its own challenges when it comes to reaching gender equity in recruitment, career progression, and perhaps most notably, the gender pay gap.

Education and awards initiatives are an integral part of improving equity, diversity and inclusion across the board, and the Women’s Recognition Awards aims to continue keep driving financial services towards a future in which women have an equal voice at the table, where everyone feels encouraged and supported to make their career in our industry.

The finalists of the Women’s Recognition Awards 2026 will be announced on Thursday, 16th July. Keep an eye on our website to find out who made the shortlist!

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