City's top women join the club

High-flying women executives trying to break the clubby "jobs for the boys" mentality in parts of the Square Mile have joined forces to found the City Women's Club.

A group of top executives from rival investment banks are trying to break the mould in an industry which makes it notoriously difficult for women to break through the "glass ceiling" to take top jobs.

The club's 20 female founders have already attracted 300 members-drawn from senior positions in investment banks.

The club is modelled along the lines of one of America's oldest clubs for women professionals.

It has taken as its inspiration New York's Women's Bond Club, set up in 1921 for female traders whose jobs had been taken by soldiers returning from the First World War.

Club co-president Annette Fraser, a managing director at Deutsche Bank's London Wall headquarters, said: "It is a very serious organisation and very content-driven."

The club is intended to act as a opportunity for women to advance their careers both in the Square Mile and at board level in Britain's biggest public companies.

Women accounted for only 17, or

3.7 per cent, of executive directors in FTSE 100 companies last year.