The Diversity, Equity & Inclusion paper seeks to shine a light on LGBTQ+ in the pensions industry and wider business world, featuring the thoughts of Simon Blake, Chief Executive of Stonewall and Savannah Adeniyan, a member of the SPP and Solicitor, Travers Smith LLP..
In the paper, Blake sets out the inequalities still facing LGBTQ+ people, stating that, “…despite overall progress, a clear picture of inequality remains which flows through to financial inequality and a LGBTQ+ pensions gap. It is against this backdrop that we are planning our futures.”
Blake outlines several steps that pension providers can take to improve LGBTQ+ inclusion, such as learning about the history and lives of LGBTQ+ people to support open decision making; reflecting the diversity of their lives in scheme information; and ensuring paperwork is inclusive and enabling LGBTQ+ people to reflect the diversity of their identities and personal and family relationship structures.
Speaking about the challenges that still face LGBTQ+ people in the legal profession, Adeniyan says that, “My queer identity has been welcomed throughout my career in a way that I know many LGBT+ professionals did not experience at the start of theirs… I also know many LGBT+ people who have encountered 'glass ceilings' in their workspace. While I can completely be myself at my current firm, the unfortunate reality is that there are still far too many workspaces in which people are not able to be open and out for fear of a genuine risk to their careers…”.
Despite this, Adeniyan concludes: “I feel incredibly positive about inclusive trends in the legal industry as a whole… So many firms have made great, and importantly, genuine strides in actively addressing the barriers that many LGBT+ lawyers still face in the legal workspace.”
The SPP paper on LGBTQ+ inclusion can be read in full, for free, here:
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