Celebrating International Women’s Day today, Kate Davies, Executive Director, IMLA, The Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association, has certainly seen some changes in financial services throughout her 30 year career, as she shares with us today.
In this blog for IFA Magazine, Kate talks us through some of those changes, shares her opinions that not only has diversity and inclusion improved but also that “today’s women are feistier and more confident about making it clear what is and is not acceptable!”
“Since I first began my career, the environment has certainly changed. When I joined the financial services industry in late 1991, there were very few women in senior positions. Boards and meetings were dominated by white late-middle-aged men who’d predominantly been in the building society world for all their careers. The opening up of the mortgage market to banks, insurance companies and centralised lenders brought a number of changes.
“Over the last 30 years, more women have been moving up the ladder, and although progress is slow there are now more women Chief Executives and Chairs of large financial institutions, not to mention more senior women within the regulators too. Diversity and inclusion across the sector has improved at the same time – there’s a lot more to do, but things are much better than the early ‘90s.
Boosting gender diversity is a ‘no brainer’
“In my view, it feels like a no-brainer to boost gender diversity in financial services. Half the population is female after all, so most mortgage decisions are either going to be made solely or jointly by women. Many will prefer to be advised by someone who looks and thinks like them, and who understands their financial and personal circumstances. Someone who won’t patronise them or assume they won’t understand “difficult” things like finance. Surely many broker firms will want to employ teams which reflect their customer base in terms of gender and ethnicity?”
Better for business too
“There is evidence that where there are women on boards, decisions tend to be more collegiate and better for the business.1 More inclusive and diverse teams also reflect more inclusive and diverse points of view, giving them a better understanding of what consumers need and value, and ultimately offering customers better service in terms of product design and service delivery. From a team perspective, having a representative and diverse pool of employees ensures that everyone feels welcome, and nobody feels singled out.”
“During and post the Covid lockdown periods, there was a lot of comment to the effect that flexible working was predominantly great for women with caring responsibilities – whether for children, elderly parents, or other circumstances. But many of us really appreciated not having to travel for hours to get to a meeting that only took an hour itself. However, I think we have to be careful that people don’t become invisible working at home, working away diligently and putting in the hours but not getting the same recognition or being included in discussions in the way that they would if they were in the office more of the time.”
“HR departments and managers will need to monitor how people are being trained and promoted, to make sure that those who opt to work from home as much as possible are not being overlooked. If they are they may well leave, and their talents will be lost.”
Raising our game
“Here at IMLA, we’ve been taking positive steps to boost diversity and inclusion within our own structure. IMLA responded to the ground-breaking AMI report, published in October 2021, by setting up its own Inclusion and Diversity Group, which runs, amongst other things, a regular “Lunch and Learn” session that features guest speakers and invites members to bring forward a wide variety of topics within a safe space.
“We work closely with AMI on several policy issues, including Diversity and Inclusion and jointly support the recently launched “Working in Mortgages” (WIM) website, which is intended to provide a bank of resources for those wishing to join the industry and those who are already in the industry but want to help prompt change. It’s still early days but the various groups which have been formed, and the quality of the WIM website have already prompted some passionate and energetic work to improve work practices and attitudes. I am sure this can only benefit everyone who works in the industry, and this will cascade down to the way our clients are treated and helped.”
Mind the gap?
“I’m not sure that the gender gap in financial services will close entirely in 5 years, but I think it will narrow. I am now approaching the end of my professional career, but I can see more young women coming into the industry, and they quite rightly have different expectations and ambitions for their futures. Whereas my younger self might have expected to be patronised, talked over and experience the occasional unwelcome physical contact from older, not-so-gentle-men, I think today’s women are feistier and more confident about making it clear what is and is not acceptable!”
“I think there is still an issue for women who want to be recognised for being intelligent and capable of doing their jobs. However, I fear a lot of rubbish on “reality” TV and social media puts far too much emphasis on physical appearance and willingness to do all sorts of things to make yourself popular. It takes real self-confidence and belief in your own intelligence and attractiveness to ignore the nonsense and concentrate on what really matters. I hope our schools and colleges will continue to focus on helping girls and women to recognise their worth and not sell themselves short on any front. That should be a real message for International Women’s Day!
