I don’t think this is a good characterisation of the process. We had senior finance c-suite presenting to select committees boasting about illegal discrimination they had used to rapidly boost their share of women in senior roles

Various finance firms firms publicly disclosed they had made a substantial portion of bonuses for senior business leaders contingent on extremely rapidly boosting female and diverse junior- and mid-level share in their businesses, requiring pretty harsh discrimination to deliver

It was completely visible in any recruiting across the sector that you had odds ratios for being hired onto grad schemes that were often some multiples higher if you were from protected demographics

bobcook.bsky.social

17 December 2025 20:51

That’s my experience of the financial sector too. There were specific targets for the proportion of female, ethnic minority and specifically black heritage senior managers. Which necessarily required a high proportion of new entries to that level coming from those groups.

bobcook.bsky.social

17 December 2025 20:51

Making no comment on the fairness of the process but it definitely happened and had implications on the prospects of white men