Too many Australian financial services firms are "missing a trick" communicating clear gender diversity policies to their workers and potential employees, the latest survey from eFinancialCareers has revealed.
The Diversity Survey 2012 found that despite prolonged and continued wide-spread calls to improve participation of women in financial services, only 35 per cent of Australia's industry professionals believed their firm had a gender diversity program in place.
The demand for gender diversity programs was as strong as ever with 64 per cent of survey participants believing gender discrimination existed within the industry.
Women were even more definite in their perception towards inequality with over 84 per cent stating that gender discrimination did occur; 39 per cent claimed they had personally experienced it in the past.
Nearly one in 10 said they currently felt discriminated against, the survey said.
In addition, half of all respondents believed women were not represented equally at senior levels in their company and 70 per cent did not believe that female representation on their company board was equal to that of men.
Furthermore, the survey revealed male-female income disparity was still rife in Australia's financial services industry with 56 per cent believing there was a gender gap in income.
"Considering the contribution women make to financial services, this survey shows that too many Australian financial services firms are missing a trick communicating clear gender diversity policies to their workers and potential employees," eFinancialCareers managing director Asia Pacific George McFerran said.
"Financial services have traditionally been a bastion of male dominance so it's essential for firms to have clear, established gender diversity policies in place [in order] for the entire industry to move forward and become a more attractive proposition for women to work in."
When asked how important a clear policy and established diversity practices were when selecting a future employer, 54 per cent of women said it was important.
The top practices cited by female survey participants as the most effective to promote women into more senior positions were mentorship and sponsorship, cultural change and transparency in remuneration structure, which also tied to flexible working arrangements.
"Gender discrimination is still a very real issue for financial services," Mr McFerran said.
"If firms want to attract women in greater numbers they can't continue this way. Women are clearly saying they want to see gender diversity programs in place and those programs are seen as very attractive in an employer."
The survey also found respondents were pessimistic about whether the gender gap in financial services was like to improve as 45 per cent believed the gap would remain the same within the next five years.
