Today saw the release of the ‘Women In Finance’ charter and although I haven’t really been engaged in the production of this, I decided as a woman, maybe I should take a look to see if I was missing out on something that might change my life or the life of my colleagues.

To be honest I am sure their hearts are in the right place, but I don’t feel that we will see a sudden change in the direction of the financial services industry because if it.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that everyone deserves the same opportunities and I am sure I have experienced discrimination in my career. I can recall a time where someone walked around me to ask a question of a male colleague, who didn’t know the answer anyway, but I do find positive discrimination just as frustrating and more so sometimes.

The charter talks of targets for gender diversity, what does this really mean especially when they are then asked to publish their progress against the target that has been set. Targets for diversity brings a whole new level of planned positive discrimination.

I don’t want to think that at any point in my career I was employed or given a promotion because the gender balance was wrong. It should also be remembered that this doesn’t just work one way, there are firms where the majority of the senior team are female, by signing up to this they may feel pressurised to promote a male into a senior role, where a female in the business may well have been better qualified.

I am not saying that this will or won’t happen, but by introducing targets you are bringing an additional pressure on recruitment and promotions that have absolutely nothing to do with who is best for the job.

There is also the issue of suggesting that the pay of senior executives is linked to the gender diversity targets, I find this very disconcerting and can see how the outcomes may be skewed if things are not monitored and documented well enough.

This may sound as if I want the status quo, which isn’t true, but in the years I have worked in the financial services industry, things have changed dramatically for the better and this all seems a little late for me.

Continuing to support firms who are doing the right thing, without imposing reporting requirements and targets, would be my preference as these simply add additional pressures that firm really don’t need.

Recruitment and promotion without offending anyone or being sued is hard enough without adding any more hurdles.