Sexism and the City: we must do more to tackle it from the top down in business

Business, fresh from the reckoning of the #MeToo movement, claims to have changed. Let’s not kid ourselves, writes Chris Blackhurst – at best it’s still a boys’ club, and at worst, it’s a sector that continues to thrive on toxic misogyny and abuse

Investors must stop with the lip service and refrain from funding firms with a history of discriminatory behavior (Getty)

On a single day, a House of Commons select committee finds that sexism is rife in the City; the accuser of Christian Horner, a woman, is presumably at home, suspended from her job at the Red Bull F1 team; I am reading The Trading Game by former star bank trader Gary Stevenson, in which women are noticeably absent – certainly from the first third, in which the (all-male) high-rollers stalk the markets and relax by going to clubs where scantily clad hostesses serve exotic drinks.

Oh, and it’s also International Women’s Day, when we’re invited to “imagine a gender-equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated”.

That would be nice. What’s depressing is how little has changed. We kid ourselves if we believe it has. There have been shifts in behaviour and, undoubtedly, #MeToo was a major step, instilling the fear of being called out, but underneath, has the position of women altered, really, for the better? Certainly, we are nowhere near yet matching those objectives of International Women’s Day.