"Morgan Stanley remains committed to increasing the representation of women in senior management.
We retain a long-term focus on advancing our talent through tailored recruiting and retention efforts, strengthening our talent pipeline with proactive career discussions, robust leadership development initiatives, and supporting managers. We hold senior leadership accountable through annual diversity progress reviews with divisional and country heads.
We live our core values, including ‘Commit to Diversity and Inclusion.’ The Women in Finance Charter target is an integral benchmark to keep us accountable and focused on sustained progress."
Clare Woodman
CEO of Morgan Stanley International and Head of EMEA
Charter Targets Progress
When we signed up to the Charter in 2017, we aspired to 30% women in senior leadership, which we met two years earlier than expected. In 2022, we increased our target to achieve at least 35% female representation in senior management by 2025. We define senior management as the UK-based officers in the Operating Committee and two direct/co-direct reporting layers below them.
2024 Progress Highlights
- Female membership on our main Morgan Stanley International Board stands at 44%.
- Female representation on our EMEA Operating Committee stands at 44%.
- Female representation across our overall workforce has increased from 34.3% (2018) to 41% (2024).
- 35.4% of UK Officer promotions in 2024 were women, and our January 2024 female MD promotions were at a 5-year record high.
- Reduced our UK Gender Pay Gap median for the Morgan Stanley UK Group from 34.3 % (2018) to 27.3% (2023).
- Our percentage of women on UK Summer Analyst programmes was 52% in 2024.
- We welcomed our third cohort of Future Generation Scholars to the firm, 22 Summer Interns and 3 Industrial Placements across both London (19) and Glasgow (6). The scholar class comprised 56% Women, 88% Ethnic Diversity, 40% UK Black and 100% socio-economically diverse. Additionally, 16 Summer Interns joined us from the 100,000 Black Interns Foundation (12 London, 4 Glasgow), of which 50% were Women and 50% socio-economically diverse.
- Continued to invest in our leadership pipeline with a best-in-class talent development curriculum for high-performing women that focuses on career progression, manager involvement and executive coaching.
- Introduced a new mandatory Practicing Allyship training module in our Inclusive Leadership Curriculum for all managers and Officers in EMEA, designed to create a more inclusive workplace by embedding equity into people processes in hiring, performance management and day-to-day operations.
- Expanded family support benefits across all EMEA locations, in partnership with the Firmwide Head of Family Advocacy for EMEA to support new and expecting parents.
- Recognised amongst The Times UK Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality 2024, in association with Business in the Community.
- In its third year, the Inclusive Ventures Lab continues its commitment to a more equitable investment landscape for overlooked founders; to date nearly 70% of founders the lab has supported are female.
- Sponsor of critical research supporting women’s career progression including the four-year ‘Accelerating Change Together’ programme (ACT), instituted by Women in Banking and Finance (WIBF), Coqual’s ‘Challenging Norms: A Global Analysis of Gender at Work’ and the London School of Economics’ (LSE) Inclusion Initiative.
EMEA Diversity and Inclusion Governance and Strategy
Our EMEA Diversity Action Council provides thought leadership and acts as a catalyst to drive forward the overall EMEA diversity and inclusion strategy in partnership with Human Resources, Diversity and Inclusion and the Talent teams. The Council meets bi-monthly and is chaired by Juliet Estridge, Managing Director, EMEA Head of Research. Additionally, each Managing Director member is held accountable by their Division/Region Head for supporting their diversity and inclusion plan. Regular meetings are held with Division/Region Heads, their Chief Operating Officers and Diversity Action Council members to review divisional progress on metrics, the diverse talent pipeline and specific diversity initiatives. Accountability is underscored by monthly strategic dialogue with the EMEA Operating Committee.