MOST women working in finance think that discrimination is rife in the industry, but their male colleagues don't agree it's as big of an issue.

Research from jobs website eFinancialCareers found 84 per cent of women said gender discrimination exists in financial services, compared to just 54 per cent of men.

But who is right?

George McFerran, managing director of eFinancialCareers Asia Pacific, said the answer was probably "in the middle ground somewhere".

Mr McFerran said executives of financial companies were pushing for equal pay and trying to create equality.

"If you ask business leaders they'll all tell you they're doing everything they can," Mr McFerran said.

"But clearly the perception is very different, the message isn't quite getting through, which would imply this is a cultural change that has to take place and is not something that can happen overnight."

The survey found the biggest discrepancy was in men and women's views on equal pay - 78 per cent of women think there is a gender pay gap in the finance industry, but just 44 per cent of their male colleagues agree.

Finance Sector Union spokeswoman Leanne Shingles said there was a "significant" gender pay gap in the finance sector and it was a direct result of the types of roles people fill in the industry.

"If you're in a role that's generating a lot of sales you're more highly rewarded than roles providing services," Ms Shingles said.

"There are more men in sales roles while women tend to dominate service positions ... that does skew the income results."

When it comes to equal representation at the senior management level, 57 per cent of men felt that women were equally represented - a feeling shared by only a third of women.

Mr McFerran said the perception problem needed to be addressed or the future success of the industry would suffer.

"Banking and finance as a career option is not as popular as it was before the GFC," he said.

Banks were now competing with a number of other industries including engineering, mining, technology and the environment for talented graduates, Mr McFerran said.

"And if they're not attractive to 50 per cent of people out of uni they're going to have a real problem in five years time because the talented people won't be there to take up positions in management."

Ms Singles said there was no silver bullet to solve the problem of gender equality.

"But certainly we know that where pay and conditions are achieved collectively rather than being based on individual performance there are better outcomes for women," she said.

"Market-based pay structures and performance pay systems don't particularly advantage women employees."