Women in advice: Closing the gender gap

Ever since I've spent the last 20 years in this industry it has always been 20% women to male advisers. And very few ever go for their own AFSL. Pay inequity and the gender gap has been the background of all my working life. A great way for women to manage that unequal situation is to go into their own business so they can have the flexibility and create their own salary.
Financial planning is a great business for women and more could be done to encourage and support women to get set up in their own business and create their own future for themselves.

I have been in the industry for 11 years. When I first started I can remember walking into a PD day with no other female. This industry is slowly changing, however, I worry about women who are planning on taking a break to start their family. This industry needs to adapt its training so that women planning on taking a break are not subjected to the same rules on PD points. Enable us to take some time out of the industry and know we can return without being subjected to unnecessary training. A suggestion... part time hours... pro-rata PD points perhaps?

I suspect that the low female adviser numbers mirror the low take up of mathematics by girls for more than 30 years, and an education system that appeased this poor outcome by underweighting the importance of numerical skills, rather than addressing the real issue of female confidence in this area. Hopefully recent changes encouraging woman into STEM subjects will see a flow on effect to boost numbers in our industry too.

We are an all female practice which is even rarer. we are thrilled to offer financial planning services and a strong role model to our girls and women in society. We are very passionate about making a difference, there is no such thing as can't and we want to empower everyone we touch. Women can do it and they need a cheering squad and if you don't have one you need to find one. We cheer for all women.

I am a Women's Leadership Specialist and built a diversified financial services business over 24 years. My research and my experience indicates that we will not make significant change unless we address implicit bias. Women are traditionally not encouraged to be leaders but supporters. This results in lack of self-confidence and self-doubt about their performance and inhibits demands for more status in the financial services professions. There is also the expectation overwhelm trap where women are expected to have careers, be the perfect mother, be fashionable, have the perfect home and relationship as well as super children.
Unless these issues are addressed through programs like my Women's Empowerment and Leadership Program, then the statement that we will colonise Mars before we have gender equity for women will remain a fact. This Mars statement was discovered in the Rockefeller Foundation's May 2016 survey about "Women in Leadership: Why It Matters".