While Jardine specified that this form of bias would not be conscious or deliberate for people, she pointed out that many industry figures who were taught by someone who had been brought up in that environment may have unintentionally adopted similar thinking.
Action
To address the issues she identified, Jardine discussed her involvement in an initiative that aims to boost the visibility of women of all ages within the financial industry.
“Myself, a colleague called Roxy, and someone who works at IDEX named Gemma, are all committee members for this group called FeLines, which is a women in financial lines group,” she explained.
Jardine stated the idea behind FeLines is to create a space which will give a spotlight to women within the financial lines sector.
This would include people within insurance or in any position within the financial industry.
“We are targeting all ages and we’re hoping to use panel discussions, general meetups to discuss current issues, and getting inspirational speakers in, so we can all share our own experiences and offer help and guidance where it’s needed and asked for,” she added.
“That’s launching on September 10 and, from then on, we are hoping to push on and have a couple of panel discussions and build that initiative out, hopefully, over the next 12 months.
“Hopefully, that’s going to be very interesting."
tom.dunstan@ft.com
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