How PR can help financial services close the gender gap

The latest Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) data confirms what many already suspected… women in financial services are still being paid significantly less than men, despite making up over half the workforce.

The financial and insurance services sector has one of the biggest gender pay gaps in Australia, 22.2% at the median. That means half of all employers in the sector have a pay gap larger than that.

Even more staggering, 96% of financial services employers pay men more on average than women.

The sector isn’t struggling to find qualified women it’s failing to elevate them to positions of power at the same rate as men.

The data is clear. But data alone won’t fix the problem.

The role of PR in driving real change

We’ve seen this before, a major gender report comes out, media headlines highlight the inequities, and companies release statements about how they’re “committed to change.”

But the reality?

Many businesses move at a glacial pace when it comes to actually shifting the dial.

According to Financy’s Women’s Index, led by the incredible Bianca Hartge-Hazelman, at the current rate of change, it could take 22 years to close the gender pay gap and 59 years for women to achieve equal leadership representation.

That’s across all industries not just financial services, but it does demonstrate the pace of which progress is being made.

Companies need to audit their pay structures. They need clear pathways for women into leadership and create supportive environments in which to thrive. They need to challenge the outdated norms that hold women back.

But culture plays a massive role, too. And this is where PR becomes a critical tool.

Not just for shaping reputation, but for influencing meaningful lasting change.

So how can PR help?

1. Amplifying women leading in diverse ways

We need to see more women leading. That’s more women of colour. More women of different abilities. More women across the spectrum.

Leadership is still inherently seen as a man’s world and the types of leaders we do see typically conform to a masculine or traditional style of leadership.

I attended the Feminist Roast at the Opera House over the weekend and while entertaining, it also served as an important reminder from each of the panellists that we simply don’t see enough different styles of leadership. Especially within minority groups who face further challenges than that of a white woman.

We need to champion different voices and leadership styles to increase visibility. PR can help to cut through the noise and share these stories with the right audience.

2. Holding companies accountable

There’s nowhere to hide anymore.

Now that WGEA reporting is mandatory, companies can’t just talk about gender equality, they have to prove it. Businesses should be taking a proactive approach to this by:

• Communicating real action (not just empty commitments).

• Being transparent about challenges and progress.

• Showing the numbers - even when they aren’t flattering.

The businesses that win in the long run won’t be the ones pretending they’ve already got it all figured out.

They’ll be the ones willing to have the hard conversations, listen to criticism, and demonstrate what actual change looks like.

A recent example of this is BHP. In 2016, the then BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie set an ambitious target of 50% female representation across its workforce by 2025.

At the time, mining was one of Australia’s most male-dominated industries, and many were sceptical about whether such a shift was even possible.

But BHP focused on three key areas:

• Recruitment: BHP revamped its hiring processes to ensure women weren’t being unintentionally excluded, introducing gender-balanced shortlists and removing biases from job descriptions.

• Retention: the company tackled the cultural barriers that were driving women away, improving workplace flexibility, safety, and parental leave policies.

• Leadership commitment: senior executives made gender equity a business priority, linking diversity targets to leadership performance reviews and bonuses.

And the results? BHP went from 17% women in 2016 to 39% in 2025.

However this was not achieved without friction, in 2022 a former BHP employee Burak Powers filed a lawsuit accusing BHP of sex discrimination. There were also widespread reports of men feeling mistreated or overlooked which only led to driving bias underground.  To achieve this increase some men had to miss out for women to progress, which according to the AFR’s Peter Ker[1] over the past nine years, BHP added a net 10,500 women and a net 3600 men. Demonstrating that widespread change at scale can be ugly but necessary.

3. Driving cultural change from the inside out

Internal PR and employee communications can play a huge role in setting the tone.

Stories of female leadership, success in closing pay gaps, and concrete examples of change should be shared just as loudly inside a company as they are externally.

Gender pay gaps aren’t just about salary discrepancies and actual money in hand they are about who gets promoted, who gets heard, and who gets access to opportunities.

Do women feel supported in asking for a raise?

Are there clear pathways to leadership?

Do senior leaders (including men) champion gender equity in a meaningful way?

PR and internal comms teams can play a huge role in shifting workplace culture by:

• Celebrating female leadership wins (and not just once a year on IWD)

• Ensuring pay gap data isn’t buried in HR reports but actively discussed

• Seeking regular feedback from all employees on the pay gap – thoughts and feelings

• Encouraging male leaders to step up as allies in a visible way

Because when employees see real action it builds trust. Because walking the talk is far more powerful than corporate platitudes.

PR can’t fix the pay gap - but it can help drive change

A core role of PR is influence. And influence is exactly what’s needed right now to turn gender pay gap data into meaningful action.

As Financy’s Women’s Index highlights, progress is too slow. The financial services industry is built on networks of power many of which still reinforce the status quo.

But PR can be used to challenge those norms, elevate diverse voices, and hold businesses accountable in a way that actually shifts behaviour.

The data is clear. The question now is: which companies are ready to do the work and which will keep making excuses? Until next year…

[1] https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/workplace/the-warts-and-all-story-of-how-bhp-almost-got-to-gender-balance-20250219-p5ldkp#:~:text=So%20he%20stood%20up%20at,that%20same%20day%20in%202016.