Almost half of the women in senior positions in investment banking have no children, according to new research seen by The Observer, underlining the sacrifices required for females to advance in the City.
A large proportion of those who are mothers balance work and family through role reversal: a quarter of the women surveyed had stay-at-home husbands.
The research, by Ruth Sealy of the International Centre for Women Business Leaders at Cranfield School of Management, suggests that there are even fewer women in senior City roles than elsewhere in industry. At the banks she investigated, just 5 per cent of managing directors were female, compared with 11 per cent of FTSE 100 directors and 19 per cent of MPs, according to the latest annual survey by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Sealy interviewed 34 women managing directors at leading City investment banks and found that 16 - nearly half - had no children. Their average age was 42. Fewer than a fifth of women in the population as a whole remain childless. However, women in other areas of finance, such as fund management, may find it easier to combine a career with motherhood.
Of those surveyed 28 had partners, of which eight did not work or were the primary carers - again, a number well in advance of the general population. Sealy believes this underlines the difficulty of combining a City career with a family. 'A lot of [the women] talked about postponing having a family,' she said.
Herta von Stiegel, who has held senior positions at JP Morgan, Citibank and AIG Financial Products, said she believes the 'macho' culture of investment banking is unnecessary. She said: 'I have led some of the most complex deals in corporate finance, and I can tell you there is no need to push 24/7. If you are organised, you can structure yourself better.
'The system was created by men, for men. We do not want the same treatment as men; we want to cater for people's diversity. In my view, that takes enlightened men and brave women.'
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