New laws could lead to a more powerful female presence in banks, Harriet Harman has said.
Equalities minister Harriet Harman has called for more women to sit on bank boards, in order to stamp out discrimination in the City.
In a speech to members of the Fawcett Society, Ms Harman suggested that financial firms need to change their corporate practices in future. She added that the recently-published Equalities Bill, if adopted into law, would help women to gain a firmer footing at banks.
The proposed legislation contains a raft of measures aimed at excluding discrimination on the basis of age, gender or ethnic group from the workplace and elsewhere. It is still subject to the parliamentary process before becoming law, however.
It is thought that men earn on average 23 percent more than women. However, in the City this difference goes up to 40 percent.
Ms Harman also said that women were being hit harder than men by the credit crunch and recession. "We have to worry more than men and we are definitely worrying more about the recession than men are," she commented.
"Unless we can see it workplace by workplace [discrimination] stays swept under the carpet - that unfairness stays hidden and we can't tackle it, if it's hidden."
In a new poll released earlier this week, internet bank smile showed that male survey respondents believed they need more money to be "happy" than female respondents. The difference between the genders came to 27 percent.
