City marks 50th anniversary of first female traders on floor of the London Stock Exchange
Two “trading floor trailblazers” opened the London Stock Exchange to mark the 50th anniversary since the first women traders were admitted into the historic marketplace.
Susan Shaw and Hilary Pearson, who began working on 26 March 1973, were among the first female stockbrokers in the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) .
They opened the day’s trading with Labour’s Anneliese Dodds who will highlight warnings the “belligerent” financial services gender pay gap could take 18 years to close.
Shadow women and equalities secretary Dodds said: “It is unthinkable today that women would not have been allowed on the trading room floor of the London Stock Exchange.
“It is thanks to the trading room trailblazers of 50 years ago, and their successors in business today, that we have made such progress.”
Julia Hoggett, LSEG chief executive, commented: “The women in that first cohort and indeed the subsequent ones, fought prejudice, some outrageous comments and a questioning of their ability and contribution.
“We owe those trailblazers a huge debt: they imagined a world where women could become members of the Stock Exchange and then stuck it out to both make it happen and just as importantly, make it stick.”
In a report on 50 years of change for women traders in the UK’s finance sector, published on International Women’s Day, Professor Ranald Michie wrote: “The admittance of women was integral to London’s journey to becoming an open market.”
Gender pay gap
But Labour says its analysis of Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures shows it would take 18 years to eliminate the gender pay gap in financial service at current rates, which was at 27 per cent as of October 2022, with ‘equal pay day’ for women on 23 September.
Financial and insurance services have the largest gender pay gap of any industry for full-time employees, according to the ONS’s annual hours and earnings survey, Labour said.
“We will create the right conditions to tap into the wealth of female talent,” Dodds will say.
“Comparatively, we stop earning three months earlier every year than men. Supporting and empowering women at every level of business is not a ‘nice to have’.”
Monday’s event will also include contributions from Hoggett; Katherine Griffiths, city editor of Bloomberg UK; Baroness Helena Morrissey; Professor Sue Vinnicombe; Romi Savova, Pensionbee chief executive; and Check Warner, Ada Ventures and Diversity VC cofounder.
Susan Shaw
Susan first began her career in Canada as a tour guide for the London Stock Exchange in the 1960s.
The work bought her in contact with multiple stockbrokers, one of whom hired her to work in his back-office filing paperwork outside of trading hours.
The firm, Williams Mortimer, and the deputy chairman of the stock exchange later sponsored her to become a full member.
After women were admitted in 1973, she became the first woman to walk on the trading floor.
Following her admission into the stock exchange she went on to work as a private client broker for the next 10 years before she left the sector following the ‘Big Bang’.
Hilary Pearson
Hilary Pearson (formerly Root) is one of the first women who was admitted to the London Stock Exchange in 1973.
She joined the stockbroker Sheppards and Chase in 1969.
Hilary was offered a partnership in 1976 – making her the only female partner in the firm’s history as it was taken over at the time of the ‘Big Bang’ in 1986.
She is now retired and lives in Wiltshire.