By Blossom Ukoha She sat across from her manager, salary review letter in hand. Her responsibilities had grown. She was leading projects, mentoring younger colleagues, staying late when deadlines demanded it and becoming the person everyone turned to when something needed to be fixed. Then she saw the number. There was an increase, but it was smaller than she had expected. She also knew that a male colleague with similar responsibilities earned more. The familiar questions came quickly: Should I negotiate harder? Do I need another qualification? Am I not doing enough? But perhaps there was another question worth asking: Who decided that her work was worth less in the first place? That question goes to the heart of Equal Pay Day. Because the gender pay gap is not only about women receiving smaller salaries than men. It is also about how society decides what work is valuable, which skills…

By Laura Jones “The deeper concern isn’t just that women receive only 2 percent of VC funding. It is that this 2 percent still sparks headlines, panels, and applause. We have normalised underrepresentation and started rewarding survival instead of scale.” — Linda Obi, entrepreneur and CEO of Zuri Circle For a woman building a company, raising capital can feel like trying to enter a room where the door was never designed for her. The business may have customers, revenue, technology and a compelling growth story, yet the funding conversation can still end with one familiar question: Where is the capital? Linda Obi’s observation captures an uncomfortable reality. Women are launching businesses at remarkable rates, yet their access to growth capital remains dramatically below their entrepreneurial potential. In 2024, companies founded solely by women received just 1 per cent of total US venture capital invested in venture-backed startups, according to PitchBook.…

By Blossom Ukoha For decades, women have been an important part of the financial services workforce, yet their presence has not always translated into equal access to senior leadership. The United Kingdom offers a compelling case study of what can happen when gender representation becomes a measurable business priority. Over the past decade, voluntary targets, public reporting and sustained institutional pressure have helped move more women into senior roles. But the progress is measured rather than complete. The latest HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter Annual Review, published in March 2026, and the FTSE Women Leaders Review 2026 show both the gains achieved and the gaps that remain. Here are nine lessons from the UK experience. Voluntary Targets Can Deliver Steady Progress The Women in Finance Charter, launched in 2016, has demonstrated that voluntary commitments can produce measurable results when they are backed by transparency and accountability. According to HM…