Female Leaders’ Conception of a Career in U.K. Finance and Their Self-Concept: Implications for Organisational Diversity

Despite decades of legislation and corporate initiatives, women remain underrepresented in UK financial leadership, with implications for organisational diversity, legitimacy, and inclusion. While structural barriers are well documented, less attention has been paid to how women’s self-concept and internalised understandings of legitimacy and success shape their leadership journeys in male-dominated environments. This study explores how senior female leaders in UK finance construct and interpret their careers, and how self-concept informs these constructions. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 24 women in senior financial roles, this feminist qualitative study examines how participants navigated masculinised work cultures, institutional expectations, and informal barriers to advancement. Thematic analysis revealed three overarching themes: self-concept and agency; supports, independence and conditional legitimacy; and competing models of career success. The paper introduces the concept of conditional legitimacy—the continual performance of credibility within masculinised cultures—to explain how women sustain leadership while reinforcing institutional norms. Participants described themselves as ambitious and resilient, aligning with transactional leadership norms to meet sector expectations. While some re-evaluated traditional career models, seeking balance, fulfilment, and authenticity, such aspirations were rarely positioned as systemic critique and often relied on privilege and career capital. The study links women’s self-concept to organisational legitimacy, offering a novel lens for understanding inclusion in elite finance. It concludes by calling for more pluralistic and reflexive leadership models—and for organisational practices that recognise care, wellbeing, and relational value as legitimate markers of success.