Closing the Gender Gap in Investment Banking: Why It Matters for WA

Finance as a whole is close to gender-balanced in Australia. Investment banking is a different story. Walk into most deal teams in Perth or on the east coast and the senior ranks are still overwhelmingly male, even as junior cohorts fill up with talented women graduates each year.

The numbers back this up. Workplace Gender Equality Agency data shows financial services is roughly 52% women overall, yet women hold only around 13% of CEO positions, 28% of Head of Business roles and 33% of executive and general manager roles in the sector. The pattern is consistent: strong representation at entry level, a steady drop-off the closer you get to the deals that make careers.

There are signs of progress. Female representation on the boards of Australia’s major banks has more than doubled over the past two decades, now sitting around 36% according to the AICD’s Gender Diversity Progress Report. But board seats are not the same as the revenue-generating, deal-doing roles that traditionally lead to the top job. The pay gap tells a similar story: financial and insurance services carries one of the widest gender pay gaps of any Australian industry, at over 26% according to WGEA figures.

Why this matters here in WA: Perth’s corporate finance and resources deal market is small and relationship-driven. A narrower talent pool at the senior end means clients are choosing from a shallower bench than they could be, and it means promising analysts and associates don’t always see a clear path to the top. Broader, more diverse shortlists are not just a fairness issue, they tend to produce better hiring decisions and stronger deal teams.

At JP Search, this shapes how we approach every corporate finance and investment banking search. We push for genuinely diverse shortlists rather than treating it as a box to tick, and we spend time with candidates early in their careers so the pipeline into senior roles is stronger five and ten years from now. If you’re a WA employer looking to widen your search, or a candidate wanting a confidential conversation about where your career could go, get in touch.