83% of signatories are taking action. Progress in senior representation remains slow. Something is missing.
The HM Treasury's 2026 Women in Finance review found that 83% of Charter signatories reported taking action on retaining and promoting women. Average female representation in senior management was still only 37%.
The action is happening. The results are not following at the pace they should.
This is not an indictment of the Charter — it has driven real progress and raised the profile of gender equality across the sector. But it points to a gap between the interventions most organisations are making and the underlying dynamics they're trying to address.
What most interventions miss
Most organisational interventions around women's progression focus on the visible: targets, sponsorship programmes, mentoring schemes, leadership development. These matter. But they don't address what's happening underneath — the daily experiences, the invisible moments, the cultural patterns that quietly shape whether women feel able to progress and whether they believe their future is inside your organisation.
The Treasury's review specifically identified retention, promotion, behaviour and culture as the areas requiring focus — not just recruitment. Behaviour and culture are harder to measure, harder to shift, and harder to address with a programme.
What behaviour and culture actually means
Behaviour and culture lives in the specific. The meeting dynamics. The sponsorship that happens informally over drinks that some people attend and others don't. The way flexible working is actually received, versus how it's officially supported. The manager capability gap that means some people's difficulties are held with care and others are not.
These are not captured by headcount data. They are captured in the conversations that happen in confidence — with coaches, with therapists, and with independent consultants who create the conditions for honesty.
If you lead a People function in financial services and you want to understand what's actually happening, I'd like to hear from you. nataliemccandless.com/working-with-me-organisations