I hear you. I have British and American citizenship (born in UK, grew up in US), and the class issue in more traditional industries is really off putting to me. It's the main reason why I've chosen to stay here for now, although given family stuff I will likely be living there for a few years at some point in the future.

Both countries have their pros and cons, and I absolutely love the time I spend in England... but at this stage when I'm still early in my career, I feel like there are certain issues like this that are just much less pronounced here. I work in asset management so gender discrimination is still a thing with the more plum investment jobs, but there's a little more open-mindedness about things like where you went to school, what part of the country you're from, what you look like, etc.

Don't get me wrong though, there is some elitism around educational pedigree and what not. But also I think because the country is so big, people inherently recognize that it's stupid to only hire graduates of one or two schools. Also people kind of love the "rags to riches" stories here, so I think people who are able to do well for themselves tend to get positive reinforcement from society.

(Reading this over makes me sound like I'm some huge pro-America person...but it's mostly just on this one issue of class and social mobility)