What’s important, in Robertson’s eyes, is that there are men in the industry who have worked with and under women.
“Working for a man that has worked for a woman is extremely helpful,” she explained.
“When I started I didn’t have a child. It’s much harder now, having had a kid three years ago, to say yes when you have childcare responsibilities.”
In the platform market, there is often an expectation that you have got to be alive with the market.
“It can culture a strict way of working,” said Robertson.
“With caregiver responsibilities falling on women, you just need to build flexibility into ways of working. We have two to three staff who just work core school hours.”
In Robertson’s eyes, a woman getting promoted to the executive level has a huge impact. “For my generation [Robertson is a millennial], the pay gap is tiny, well under 5 per cent,” she explained.
“But it grows bigger as you grow older.”
Amira Norris, head of sales at Novia
Norris got her first job at 16, back in 1995, with Maureen Watson - an independent financial adviser who owned her own business.
She then went on to be a paraplanner before training to be an IFA herself. It was in 2017 that she moved to platforms, joining Nucleus before moving to Novia.
At just 16, Norris counted herself lucky to have an exemplary role model like Watson.
“She taught me the solid foundations of straightforward, honest advice and exceptional customer service.” she recalled.
“She was a fantastic mentor and role model, and instilled my passion for this profession, which remains with me to this day. I was incredibly lucky to have that so early in my working life.”
Norris dubbed the early 2000s which followed a time of great progress for working women.
“It was the age of girl power and strong women on TV like Scully from the X Files.”
But in work, Norris said it was still very hierarchical.
“As I started to work for larger companies, I noticed a distinct lack of women outside of the administrative pool and senior roles, but over time that really changed,” she explained.
“We had great social moments, like Clara Furse becoming the first female chief executive of the London Stock Exchange in 2001, and Ellen Macarthur in 2005 becoming the fastest person to sail single-handed around the world at 28 years old.
“Over time, I had more and more women in our profession to aspire to and look up to and fantastic male mentors and sponsors who opened career doors for me.”
