My eldest son is a big fan of The Beach Boys, so we recently went to their Heritage Live concert at Englefield House in Berkshire. The only original Beach Boy left in the band, Mike Love, is now 84 and Liam wanted to see him sing live at least once before he calls it a day.
Love and the rest of the band were exceptional. They didn’t play my favourite, Caroline, No. As Liam reminded me, that was actually a solo release by the late Brian Wilson, which failed to chart in the UK. But I was content with Darlin’, my second favourite, and all the bangers like Good Vibrations.
Scottish singer LuLu was one of the support acts, the only female on the bill. She wasn’t a singer I particularly wanted to see but by the end of her set, I was won over. It was her voice, her bubbly personality and her anecdotes about being a woman in the male-dominated music industry of the 1960s and 1970s that made me warm to her.
The secret to a long and successful career is being true to yourself, but not becoming set in your ways
The anecdotes were a taster for LuLu’s forthcoming book, If Only You Knew, and they piqued my interest. I couldn’t imagine what it was like for this strong, independent 76-year old woman to have been a 15-year-old girl with a hit record, being told what to do and how to do it by lots of older men in suits.
Young women weren’t taken seriously by the industry execs, which accounts for ‘the suits’ pigeonholing LuLu as ‘bubblegum pop’. But it was good to hear that there were influential men in the industry like The Beatles who were happy to help and nurture her. And David Bowie, who encouraged LuLu to be herself, even if ‘the suits’ thought they knew better.
“The record labels don’t get you, Lu, they don’t get your voice,” he’d told her. That conversation led to her covering Bowie’s song ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ – definitely not ‘bubblegum pop’. It showed LuLu in a different light and demonstrated the possibilities of reinventing yourself through collaboration, which she did many years later with Take That.
I think nuggets like this shine a light on the secret to a long and successful career – being true to yourself, but not becoming set in your ways and realising there is always something fresh to learn and do.
Not only is creating a more representative profession the right thing to do, there are also sound commercial reasons for doing it
With all that in mind, I’ve been coming across a lot of articles about the need for the financial advice sector to attract, recruit and retain more women. I’ve even written an article myself, looking at how the transfer of wealth to women through inheritance and divorce is creating huge opportunities for female advisers.
I think it’s important to show that not only is creating a more representative profession the right thing to do, there are also sound commercial reasons for doing it. In my experience of covering the financial advice sector for the last 25 years, presenting a strong business case is the only way to bring about change in the industry – unless it’s mandated by the regulator, of course.
While researching my article, I came across Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland, a charity that champions the economic empowerment of women and girls. Its president, Ruth Healey, told me she sees both a growing need and a valuable opportunity for more female financial advisers in the UK.
“Financial confidence is a foundation of freedom – and women helping women achieve that is a powerful force for equality and equity,” she says. “Encouraging more women into the financial sector is not only smart economics – it’s essential to shaping a future that works for everyone.”
It would seem that male-run advice firms will potentially lose out if they can’t offer the choice of a female adviser to their clients
Although financial advice remains a male-dominated sector, Healey says women often feel more comfortable discussing money with female professionals.
“As wealth passes more frequently to women, the industry must evolve to meet that preference – not only to improve client outcomes, but to make financial services more inclusive,” Healey told me.
So it would seem that male-run advice firms will potentially lose out if they can’t offer the choice of a female adviser to their clients. To be fair, a lot of men I speak to in the profession know that and want to attract more women. Some of them have told me they’d love to recruit more women – but women don’t seem to be as interested as men.
Reading Money Marketing’s coverage of the Women’s Wealth Alliance recent survey shed some light on this. Although 93% of women currently or previously working in financial planning would recommend it to other women, it has lower appeal among women with no experience of the profession.
Just 36% of those women would consider it in future, while 56% said they would not. Perceptions that the profession is male dominated is putting many women off. So the cycle will continue, unless those of us in the know speak to women about the profession we know and love.
Not enough is being done to show women outside the financial services bubble what financial advice is really about
Financial advice is a great career for women at all stages of life, from young women starting work to career changers and women returning to work after having children.
“Financial advice offers an attractive career path: it combines problem-solving, people skills and the power to help others achieve financial security. It also offers flexibility, clear progression and the ability to make a tangible difference – values that many women seek in a career,” says Healey.
But not enough is being done to show women outside the financial services bubble what financial advice is really about. That it’s about people more than numbers and graphs.
“Careers education, targeted outreach, visible role models and mentorship schemes are crucial,” Healey says. “We need to communicate that women not only belong in financial services but are needed there.”
That last sentence really hits the nail on the head for me. If we don’t feel that we belong and are needed in the profession, why would we bother?
