Men need to be brave
Men in the financial services industry need to be brave and champion women, an Olympian told a community that aims at helping women in the industry.
Speaking at the BT Financial Group's Stella Network breakfast on Tuesday, world champion cyclist and Olympian, Katherine Bates, said men needed to be brave enough to treat men and women in the same way as the outcome would be the same.
"Whether it is women in sport or business, until people are brave enough to give you the opportunity to really champion your efforts, you can't take the next step," Bates said.
"There's a perceived differential in where your investment goes and what the outcome may be but I can quite conclusively say from research we've done, there's no difference in the outcome, just the perception."
Citing her experiences in cycling where women were largely ignored, Bates said women could not step up in their careers without being championed or mentored.
"As long as the women's sport does not continue to grow, the opportunities outside the sport can't grow because there's no development coming through and that's the same in any industry," she said.
"If you don't have a lot of women actively being developed then they can't step up to the next rank."
The Stella Network's head, Julia Newbould, said only 20 per cent of financial planners were female and just an increase of 10 per cent would lead to a much greater change.
"Diversity within financial planning is important not just because it allows a greater choice of provider to give the advice, but it also gives a wider range of insight for the industry to progress," Newbould said.
"Women make great planners, as do men but women are not being seen in representative numbers."
While the event was aimed at attracting as many men as possible, only 20 per cent of the attendees were men.
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