Societal expectations hindering greater parity in parenting roles

DIVERSITY and more specifically gender diversity has featured in the landscape of Human Resources (HR) of large companies such as Deutsche Bank for more than a decade. It continues to be at the forefront, but challenging social expectations of gender roles in parenting is fundamental to making real progress.

We hire roughly an equal number of men and women in our graduate intakes. We have roughly the same number of men and women at junior levels, and women often progress faster at the earlier stages of their career. However, tackling the fallout rate that comes at a crucial stage of an individuals' career - say, making the step from vice-president to director - continues to be a challenge. This often represents a time when employees are in their late 30s, are really coming into their own, and are ready to step up in responsibility and accelerate to the top ranks of the organisation. It also happens to be the time when many employees decide to have children. These two should not be irreconcilable, but more often than not, they are.

Deutsche Bank's approach to diversity has been evolving for years, broadening to address all elements of inclusion and exclusion in the workplace. We made commitments a number of years ago, along with other DAX companies, to improve parity in the workplace, particularly at senior levels. We are now also looking to ensure we reach the targets to comply with the German Gender Quota Law in 2020. The bank has taken a number of positive steps to achieve some of these aims, whether sponsorship or mentoring, leadership programmes designed to encourage women to step up, and general advocacy. There has been a lot of progress but we have not yet overcome the biggest hurdle to equal representation at senior levels of the bank - roles in parenting.