The number of women in the mortgage industry could be increased by promoting administrative staff, suggest brokers
The number of women in the mortgage industry could be increased by promoting administrative staff and actively communicating this as a viable path into advising, brokers have suggested.
Women in the industry highlighted that the administrative side of the mortgage market tended to be dominated by them while men took up advisory positions.
The existing makeup of the sector may prove to be a barrier to both outsiders and those working within it, it was said, as employees who are not already advising may have trouble identifying with those who are.
I guess it’s a lot to do with role modelling. If you go as a female mortgage administrator to a conference and you see all the advisers are men, maybe you don’t imagine yourself being able to go into that role, Jo Jingree, mortgage advisor at Mortgage Confidence said.
Jingree entered the industry “by accident”, starting out as a mortgage administrator after university to save up for travelling. She ended up enjoying the role and worked for different brokers and packagers before moving on to advising, which she has done for two and a half years.
Attending events over the years, Jingree noticed the majority of advisers happen to be men and although she has seen a change, she added: You can kind of see why some of the admin roles don’t always progress into an adviser role, which it should do in a lot of cases. It should be part of the job description or profession. I don’t have admin but if I did I would encourage them to progress because I think that’s how you get the best out of people.
Larger firms, clubs and networks could also use their presence to drive gender diversity in the sector, Jingree added, as could sending minority employees to represent them at events to avoid giving the industry “one look”.
Lilla Dilliway, mortgage adviser at BlueWing Financials, added some women did not have people in the industry to look up to, either through personal relationships or beyond which was possibly shaping their opinion of whether they could take up such a role.