Today is International Women’s Day (IWD), a global event which recognises women’s incredible achievements, and raises awareness about gender equality, whilst encouraging others to do the same. Every year on 8 March, IWD is supported by governments, academic institutions and forward-thinking organisations to celebrate the social, political, cultural and economic achievements of women across the world.
IWD’s origins date back to the early 1900’s, with 15,000 women marching through New York in 1908 campaigning for change with shorter hours, better pay and the right to vote. Although diversity and inclusion have developed considerably over the recent years, there is still much more to do.
This year the theme is embrace equity, and a focus on gender equality being a must-have. Equal opportunity means creating an inclusive world, regardless of where you start.
At Partners Wealth Management, we hope that our culture of freedom continues to attract more female advisers. Today though, we celebrate that our conscious choice not to hire based on gender, image or background has helped us to build a balanced leadership team, with women in leadership roles in half of our departments across the firm. Unquestionably this enriches our skill sets, rounds our decision-making process, and frankly has helped us build a far better business. We strive to attract, and retain talented women, and help them to develop at the firm. How do we do this? We spotlight talent and make it work, within a supportive structure, providing the environment and freedom to flourish.
Spotlighting our talent
We are huge supporters of the amazing women within our firm. For example, Partner Rebecca Rider heads our equity release mortgage team. She brings a wealth of mortgage and financial services experience and knowledge to our business gained during more than 20 years in the sector. She was recognised in the British Specialist Lending Awards 2022 in the Broker: Complex Income category this year, which is fantastic achievement and we are delighted that she was recognised.
Making it work
We are constantly striving towards our goal of delivering a supportive working environment to help everyone succeed. This has been achieved with a number of policies to make it work for everyone, including a flexible hybrid working policy, and our gender specific Menopause policy. The Gender Equality Network also offer a number of sessions addressing key areas such an imposter syndrome. Historically, more women have retired into poverty than men, so to help avoid this, we have a financial health check for everyone to ensure that career breaks and other responsibilities can be planned to seek to avoid this imbalance continuing.
Upskilling and uplifting
Our Mentoring Programme has been designed to help individuals to develop more effectively, by building confidence and providing support , empowering the mentee to take control of their own development.
We have also worked closely with our learning partners, Abstract, to design and build our programme to further support our learning culture and our colleagues’ personal development – with career development training, manager training, and general education around finances and managing personal growth, we are striving for a culture where everyone can achieve their goals.
We have always recognised and supported the needs of women who are seeking to further their careers in the financial services sector, and look forward to welcoming more female advisers into our team later in the year.