Ignorant or naive?
Browning explained that at the age she was at the time, she was completely ignorant to the differences and accepted it as it was.
“It's only when you reflect back and think, gosh, how did I deal?,” she said.
“The first obvious area for me was quite early on, and we were the group of young people being taken on by the bank,” she said.
“We were cashiers and we were then targeted with new accounts, insurances, and I was successful at this because I'm very good at talking to people.
“There were three of us, two girls, one of them's my best friend still, and the other was a guy and we all did the same job.”
She explained that she and her best friend were very good and he was very average but the first step up that came went straight to him.
“Brave and bold that I felt at the time I went to my boss and said, 'I didn't know this job was an option, nobody mentioned it. You've put forward this guy, and for six months I have outperformed him in every possible area'.”
Browning said her boss at the time told her he didn't know I was interested and that maybe she wasn't quite ready.
“That was the pushback at that point,” she said.
“The next time I guess was when I tried to move between being a regulated adviser doing bank assurance and mortgages into full regulated advice, which was the beginning of my career as it is now.
“There was a job that came up and it was blocked. I was told not to apply for it. They said I wouldn't be able to move on and that I was needed in my team.”
She added: “I went to HR and one of the things my mother made me do is join a union.”
Browning spoke to the union who told her that if they can prove a business case as to why she can’t move, they can win but they can't stop her applying or going for the job.
She later applied and got the job, but when she went back to her boss, he was really cross.
“I had preempted it and I'd also gone for a job with HSBC who had also offered me the job immediately. I just said well I'm really sorry, I had a feeling you'd feel that way but I've also been offered a job elsewhere. So I'll be taking that.”
She added: “People I'd started and progressed with were moved into that regulated environment, almost like a matter of course and that was just the norm whereas women were seen very much in a support role.
