International Women's Day 2026: Death by a thousand qualifications

Now in its 115th year, International Women's Day continues to provide a major annual focal point for accelerating gender equality worldwide. Looking at the experiences of women in the financial services and fintech sectors, for example, offers insight into how these challenges play out in practice, revealing that, as yet, the relationship between intent and outcome is not always straightforward.

To learn more, we spoke to three women leaders from PAYNT, a payment solutions and infrastructure provider, about their experiences and vision for the future, beginning with the biggest question of all: how close are we getting to genuine equality?

According to Swati Deshpande, the company's Marketing Manager, while the sector has certainly made progress across both representation and diversity, there remains a substantial challenge in achieving true female inclusion and leadership. "Women currently constitute only around 28% of the UK fintech workforce, and just 12% of fintech companies have at least one female founder," she said. "In fact, the intersection of gender inequalities in finance, technology and entrepreneurship still creates a significant barrier for women."

However, representation alone does not fully capture how these challenges are experienced in practice. As Nafisa Feeney, PAYNT's General Manager UK and Head of Legal, explains, inequality in the sector is often less visible but no less damaging.

"Mary Ann Sieghart's The Authority Gap documents something that anyone who has spent time in legal and financial services will recognise immediately: women are routinely assumed to be less competent than men of equivalent or lesser qualification, until they prove otherwise, and sometimes not even then. In my sector, fintech and regulated financial services, the authority gap shows up in boardrooms, in regulatory engagements, in client negotiations, and in how legal advice from women is received versus the same advice from male counterparts."

She continued: "It is not dramatic; it is death by a thousand qualifications. A woman's legal opinion gets a second opinion. Her risk assessment gets challenged. Her contract position gets relitigated by someone more junior but more confident. Closing that gap doesn't require a new law; it requires institutions to treat the authority gap as an operational risk with measurable consequences, because the cost of routinely discounting the judgment of half your talent pool is not just an equality failure. It is a governance failure."

Even where progress has been made, gaps between policy and experience can still emerge. Marian Nutley, PAYNT's Chief Compliance Officer and MLRO, argues that this disconnect is often driven by individual-level decisions rather than systemic policy.

"In one case I am familiar with, a woman was managing a team of men but was paid less than those reporting to her, and the organisation would not support her in addressing the disparity. Cases like this highlight how gaps can persist despite formal commitments to equality."

As Deshpande notes, these issues are not always immediately visible. "The disconnect between policy and actual outcomes is often seen in quieter ways, where policies exist but people may not feel able to use them or are unsure how to navigate the systems designed to support them. Just because these gaps are not always visible does not mean they do not exist."

"We now have legal recognition of issues such as economic coercion as a form of domestic abuse, which is genuine progress," said Feeney. "But the enforcement infrastructure, the staff training and the escalation pathways can lag behind that recognition. The right exists, but in many cases, the system that would make it real does not."

From intent to action

Clearly, additional effort is required if these gaps are to be closed. As Feeney argues, this depends on establishing a greater focus on accountability within organisations: "As an industry, we have invested heavily in mentoring programmes and women's networks, but they tend to focus on fixing the individual rather than fixing the system. The women who reach senior roles almost always have a sponsor, someone who advocates for them and supports their progression."

"The change needed is simple: make sponsorship visible, and require organisations to report on whether senior leaders are actively sponsoring women into senior roles. What gets measured gets managed."

"Ultimately, it is crucial that organisations go further than just recognising the importance of equal rights," said Nutley. "They must ensure they are applied consistently, with full commitment and that policies are backed by rigorous processes. Many organisations are on the right track, but they need to ensure those commitments are reflected consistently in day-to-day outcomes."