On International Women’s Day (8 March) BNP Paribas Fortis takes stock of a key component of our Diversity Plan for 2013-2015: the gender mix across the Bank.

Women staff recently became the majority at BNP Paribas Fortis, now accounting for 50.3% of the workforce.  Females also occupy 46% of managerial posts and represent close to 25% of senior management. There is one woman, Hilde Duson – who is in charge of Operational Risk and Compliance  – on the Executive Committee, and Sophie Dutordoir and Antoinette d'Aspremont Lynden sit on the Board of Directors.

“It’s noteworthy that since 2011, half of all new Branch Manager appointments have been taken by women,” underlines BNP Paribas Fortis Diversity Manager Claire Godding, adding: “The reason why gender mix has become such an important issue is that a good gender balance promotes innovation among the workforce, helps performance and improves overall understanding of customer needs.

“There are three drivers for change in this area: firstly, management is clearly in favour of increasing the percentage of women at the top, where there are still very few. Second, the Bank organises local on-the-ground initiatives to encourage talented, ambitious women, taking seriously their needs in terms of bringing up a family and helping them to achieve a good work-life balance, and so on. Third, there is the support provided by our internal network, MixCity Belgium, which has been running for just over a year and now has close to a thousand members. Open to both men and women, the network, whose aim is to foster a good gender balance at all levels, runs a range of activities such as meetings with management, training, mentoring, and so on.  One thing is certain: progress is being made, but there’s still a long way to go.”

To mark International Women’s Day this year, Martine Hortz and Sophie Buysse, branch group managers in the Hainaut and Est-Flanders areas, talk (in French and Dutch, respectively) about their careers, their daily work, and how they balance their family and professional lives.  Watch the videos.

The Diversity initiative, which began at the Bank in 2009, is based on the conviction that diversity in the broad sense is not only a social responsibility issue but also a key factor in the Bank’s overall performance. This proactive policy received due recognition last December when the Brussels Capital Region authorities conferred their Diversity Label on BNP Paribas Fortis (see article). 

Also have a look at ‘An alien at the Bank’, the first article in our ‘History of a bank’ series, along with the photos. We’ve come a long way since the time when women, all of them clerical staff, wore aprons in the office and lived in the shadow of their male colleagues!  Our article also features testimony from Rosa Van Elegem, an outstanding figure in the history of our Bank .