Eve Maddock-Jones (pictured), features editor at Investment Week
About a month ago, I made a pledge to dedicate my first Friday Briefing slot for March to the women whose stories are overlooked, even on days which are meant to highlight them the most.
This time last week, the world celebrated International Women's Day.
The expected outpouring and promotion of women across sectors was, as always, heartening to see, acting almost as an annual reminder that women are very much a part of all industries, especially finance - and that they also have a lot more to say other than discussing their gendered experience in highly male-dominated professions.
IWD 24: Sexism in financial services in the wake of Crispin Odey and CBI
While it is amazing to see this calendar diversity day met with so much positive support, there is always a stark undertone about the lack of progress that has been made, a lot less than the bannered hashtags could lead you to think.
For those that roll your eyes when you see a diversity-themed headline, I'd beseech you to read the latest Sexism in the City enquiry report.
Just to give you a taste of where things really are, MPs heard how NDAs are being misused in the financial sector to ‘cover up' abuse, sexual harassment and discrimination, with sexual harassment and bullying, including serious sexual assault and rape, still "prevalent" within our industry.
HR teams prioritising the reputation of the businesses over the wellbeing of employees, with 70% of whistleblowers within financial services victimised, dismissed or made to feel that resignation was the only option open to them are just some of the quite frankly harrowing finds.
Although, sadly, many of us were firmly aware that things were not rosy, it nevertheless confirmed just how far we are from the goals IWD is trying to achieve.
I said in the title that I was keeping my promise here, and I am truly honoured to be able to share some stories from women who spoke to me about their experiences but are often omitted from the wider IWD celebrations.
I said in my original call-out that often when we attempt to positively promote one marginalised group, it comes at the price of another community.
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As a white, cisgender, heterosexual woman, I recognise that I am offered more representation on these DE&I advocacy dates because of the privilege I am afforded by these labels.
Here, I can share my space with women who have felt like they have not been heard among the diversity conversations.
I want to thank them for their grace and vulnerability, and for those that did not feel comfortable to be included but took the time to have the conversations with me about your journeys, I am truly touched by your generosity with your time and openness with me.
I'm grateful for free spaces like this because, despite the rhetoric, there are very few.
Thank you, Investment Week, for finally acknowledging this.
At one stage there was a real risk that the DE&I issue was being hijacked by largely upper/middle-class women, who seemed to confine it to policies around maternity and their respective work life balances.
We need to be mindful of how DE&I issues are inextricably linked to class, to access, and what this can mean in terms of a supposed united front.
I've every sympathy with these issues, even though they are incidental to the point I wish to argue, and I agree, they represented a much-needed start.
But this complex and what should be progressive debate risks being reduced again and is sometimes used by women themselves to appear equitable and on the right side of the tracks, and cynically to promote class-based agendas – I've seen it myself.
If we're not careful, we risk ‘the typical structure' not going away but simply changing form, but this time women are excluding and undermining other women.
Is it time to start documenting the plight of the ordinary worker bees who don't have access to big platforms and were instrumental through their everyday experiences in bringing about change, but without the help of social foghorns?
Perhaps, it is time to focus on social class and all it captures instead?
Earlier in my finance career, it was easy and almost required to play by the rules of the game so as to be in the right conversations.
Gender prejudice started to hit me when I would be on roadshows and more often than not I would not only be the solitary woman there, but most definitely the only woman of colour at a boardroom table.
Combine that with being in my early 20s, it was just assumed you were an executive assistant but when I would be the one leading the presentation or speaking as the manager, it often took the clients' breath away!
Over the years, these experiences have kept repeating, albeit compounded by other power dynamics.
As the only or one of a handful of women of colour at a table, my voice is often not heard, or it is sidelined.
It is also very common for there to be no attribution to an idea that I spawn or how my integral intervention sharpens a decision for better impact.
Diversity is more widely accepted now, but we have a long way to go to really value its importance.
This article was first published as part of the Friday Briefing series, which is available exclusively to Investment Week members each week. Sign up here to receive the Friday Briefing to your inbox each week.
