Aviva CEO Amanda Blanc Says Sexism in Finance Has Got Worse

Will Louch and Olivia Konotey-Ahulu
Thu, May 12, 2022



(Bloomberg) -- Aviva Plc Chief Executive Officer Amanda Blanc said that the sexism she encounters has worsened as she has risen through the ranks in finance.

Blanc became the insurer’s first female chief executive in July 2020 but faced a number of offensive comments from shareholders at the FTSE 100-listed firm’s annual shareholder meeting on Monday. These included individual shareholders telling Blanc that she was “not the man for the job” and questioned whether she should be “wearing trousers.”

Blanc responded to the comments yesterday in a post on LinkedIn where she said that after working in the financial services industry for more than 30 years she was “pretty used to sexist and derogatory comments,” like those that were made at the AGM.

“I guess that after you have heard the same prejudicial rhetoric for so long though, it makes you a little immune to it all,” Blanc wrote in the post. “I would like to tell you that things have got better in recent years but it’s fair to say that it has actually increased - the more senior the role I have taken, the more overt the unacceptable behaviour.”

She said that usually derogatory comments were made in private and the fact people were making these comments in public was a new development for her personally.

Blanc became the government’s women in finance champion in March last year, as part of an initiative urging firms in the City to commit to boosting gender diversity. It will take the financial services industry another 30 years to achieve gender parity at senior levels, according to research published by the Women in Finance Charter in 2022.

Blanc is one of the few female chief executives of a listed company in Europe, with only 7% of firms in the region’s richest nations led by women according to a report by European Women on Boards, or EWoB, in January. In 2021, just eight organizations had promoted women to the top job since the previous year.

Hedwige Nuyens, chairwoman of the EWoB, commented in response to Blanc’s statement on LinkedIn on Wednesday, “This must stop. It is disgraceful, unacceptable. Let’s focus on the persons that really matter, bringing added value to the firm as responsible stakeholders.”

Sexism scandals have flared in the financial services sector in recent years. The insurance industry has come under particular scrutiny for how female employees are treated. A 2019 Bloomberg investigation uncovered evidence of endemic sexual harassment at Lloyd’s of London, the world’s oldest insurance market, including inappropriate comments, unwanted touching and sexual assault. Earlier this year, Lloyd’s fined Atrium Underwriters more than a million pounds for failing to address complaints of harassment and bullying.