LGIM's Douglas on female leadership, the gender wealth gap and flexible working

Fixing the male/female work balance

Emma Douglas is head of defined contribution at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM). After 20 years at the top of the pension and investing sector, she tells Laura Miller how diversity initiatives fail, the blunt answer to the female boss problem, and what she would do with a scratchcard win.

You went from modern history at Oxford to an MBA from Manchester Business School. Globally last year, a 3% female pay gap for MBA graduates before studying grew to 28% afterwards. What is going wrong? It would be great to see more women at the top. I am fortunate to be in a position where I can promote women into leadership roles; my senior leadership team is more than 50% women. We need industry-wide recognition of the talents women bring. Organisations such as the '30% Club' help make a difference, but some progress on diversity should not forget inclusion. Genuinely flexible work...