It was only once my role expanded and I started engaging more with our customers and join industry events that I realised our sector was behind in addressing the topic of diversity. 

The bridging and development market is relatively small and commands a specialist skillset from its people. As businesses grow and diversify, there is naturally a pressure to hire candidates with the necessary expertise that can add strategic value — and the options for individuals with the right product understanding continually narrows the more specific you go. Therefore, you have lots of companies fishing from the same pool – which is already predominantly male — with no conscious drive towards building gender diversity. 

As talent moves within the confines of our industry, recruitment strategies are collectively slowing down our ability to address the gender imbalance. We need to start looking outside our own sector and think about individuals which have the necessary skills to make a lateral move into our space. Ultimately, someone with the right attitude and application of thought has the foundations to pick up the technical detail and, as businesses, we shouldn’t be afraid to invest in training.

Homogeneity in any sense — be it gender or thought — has never led to the most productive outcomes. It therefore falls on us to task recruiters with creative strategies to present more female candidates from outside of our immediate space, so diversity can then grow organically.

•   'It is our duty, as women in senior positions, to support the younger generation'
•   'Hold your head high, force yourself out of your comfort zone, and it will get easier each time'
•   The gender gap is being tackled, but the glass ceiling will take longer to crack

Furthermore, as a marketplace, we are slow to engage the people of tomorrow. If you look to other sectors which are traditionally male dominated — STEM subjects spring to mind — there is a big drive to engage with young females at earlier education levels. We don’t have a central organisation which encourages interest and generates engagement to make the specialist finance market attractive to join at a younger age. By appearing ‘closed door’, we aren’t diversifying enough at entry level, which means it gets harder to do so as you begin to recruit further up the chain. 

A combination of these two factors means we aren’t presenting a route in to young females and then, as time goes on, there are fewer women to select from. We therefore need to rebrand our space as being more female-friendly by dispelling the tradition that ‘specialist’ is synonymous with ‘being the same’. 

There needs to be a push-and-pull approach; if we change our attitudes, look outside of our sector, build better early-stage bridges and create transparency around the opportunities available, we’ll intuitively make the industry more attractive to women, as they will see us make an effort to reach them. 

I’m not for quotas or minimum requirements — ultimately, the best person should get the job — but if we work together to widen that pool, naturally, our diversity numbers, gender or otherwise, will accelerate.

Are you a woman in the financial services industry keen to get your voice heard? Contact press@medianett.co.uk — we would love to chat!