Female brokers: are there enough?

International Women's Day is almost here. 

The annual celebration, to be held on Saturday, was launched in 1975 by the United Nations as a way to celebrate women, honour their achievements and continue to make efforts to support them. 

Fast-forward 50 years, and more women than ever are in the workforce, have advanced degrees or training, own their own homes and are in leadership roles, including government offices, while society in general more openly talks about gender inequalities. Yet, despite all the progress, women are still falling behind men in terms of pay, leadership positions and representation in Australia. 

According to The Leadership Institute, a Sydney-based educational development organization, women hold nearly 50% of the workforce's entry-level jobs, but only 22.3% of CEO positions and 35.1% of key management positions. In addition, women in Australia make just 78 cents for every $1 earned by men, according to the most recent report from the Australian government's Workplace Gender Equality Agency, That's a difference of more than $28,000 a year. 

But within the broker industry, Anja Pannek, chief executive officer at the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA), said that there are no gender pay inequalities. 

"This is an industry, regardless of your background or gender, people are paid exactly the same because the commission structure is set," Pannek told Australian Broker. "And I think that's such a wonderful thing, to be able to come into this industry and have a career and know that you will be paid no differently to the next person, regardless of whether you're a man or woman. It's a real equalizer, and it means everyone has the opportunity to create their version of success."

Yet, despite the pay incentives, female brokers still only make up just 26.7% of the total broker population in Australia, according to the MFAA. 

"Ideally we want to see [the male-female ratio] at a 50% level," Pannek said. "How do we go about doing that? I think a big part of that is promotion more broadly as [broking] as a career choice. This is a lot of what we talk about at the MFAA: that we really want to see this industry foster diversity, equity and inclusion." 

Peter White, managing director of the Finance Brokers Association of Australasia (FBAA), agreed. 

"It's all about inclusion," he said. "We need to make sure we include everyone in these conversations. In a utopia, we don't need to do these gender days. We can just have one day. But until then, we need to include everyone."

In honour of International Women's Day, Australian Broker did just that. We asked brokers and lenders, both male and female, their thoughts on gender diversity, and what can be done to level the playing field moving forward. The following comments have been edited for grammar and clarity. 

Anja Pannek

Chief executive officer of MFAA

"We need to continue to pursue diversity in this industry. It's an industry that serves Australians. And in my mind, an industry that serves the Australian community should be representatives of the Australian community. And women are really making a lot of the financial decisions in houses. So how do we support that? And how do we support that through really ensuring that there is continued inflow of talent into the industry? We've been conducting research to look at the reasons why there is not greater participation [from women] in the way that we would expect in this industry. And it really comes down to unconscious bias. We all make decisions about how we hire, who we recruit and how we promote people in an industry that is predominantly an industry of small businesses. Some of the things we do at the MFAA is to ensure that we have an equal spread of candidates when we're looking to recruit people, that we've got gender diversity in terms of the interview panel. Those are just a couple of steps we've done to ensure diversity." 

Peter White 

Managing director of FBAA

"There's always more work to be done, in terms of gender diversity. We need to ensure that there are no barriers put in front of women to be successful in this industry. For example, women's personal safety needs to be considered. It's all about inclusion." 

Chris Hall

Founder, managing director and finance broker at Sydney-based Blue Crane Capital

"I think it comes down to promoting [the broking industry] to both genders when people are younger. I'm finding that a lot of the pathway for brokers is via the banks. Whereas, we could make the industry pathway open and educate people who are finishing school [about being a broker]. Tell them that this is a genuine career path no matter their gender. I think more education and publicity and understanding that this is a great industry to be in [would attract more women.] But I am seeing that there are a lot more women in the mortgage brokering space, in the home loan space. I would think in the commercial finance space it would be probably less than 5%. So there's definitely more work to be done there to try to integrate more women into the workforce. But I think it's really more of an issue around making sure people who are leaving school are aware of the industry and how much of an impact they can have on their clients and how rewarding and satisfying it can be." 

Chris Paterson

General manager distribution at Sydney-based non-bank lender Resimac

"There will always be work to be done [in terms of gender diversity], regardless of the industry, and it's about awareness and acceptance. I think for the most part, people are genuinely accepting of women or men in roles, regardless of their gender. But I think, certainly in the finance industry, and in broking. Being a broker allows for flexibility, for both men and women, to have a balanced lifestyle, as well as work. But it will be an ongoing piece that everyone needs to be aware of and work through."

Rebecca Del Rio

Chief revenue officer at Melbourne-based non-bank lender Bizcap

"I do a gender pay-gap analysis on the entire company to really identify, firstly, have we got any gender pay gaps? And, issues throughout departments, teams, levels. For the last four years, we've had no issues flagged, which is really, really lovely to see. In the finance industry in general, it's very male dominated. I think, if more women were jumping into the industry and growing aggressively,  it would only have benefits [for the whole industry]. The emotional awareness and capacity of females is amazing in leadership, amazing for perspective, and I think it really avoids groupthink. Having diversity and avoiding groupthink is always beneficial. And I think that the more diverse you can make teams, people, groups, ideas, businesses, the better."

Tony MacRae

Chief commercial officer at non-bank lender Bluestone Australia

"[Gender diversity] is slowly getting better, but no, [the industry] is not [equal]. There's still a bias to old blokes like me. We definitely have more balance at Bluestone than other places. At Bluestone, we have three female executives, and the product team is an all-female-led team. So things are starting to change. My BDM team is more than 60% female, and my best BDMs are female. The women are better listeners. But [gender diversity] is definitely not what it should be yet across the industry."

Alissa Childs

Co-founder and mortgage broker at New South Wales-based brokerage Two Birds One Loan

"We are very underrepresented in female [brokers in the industry] and I can see why. A lot of women who join the industry are probably single operators, and they probably are the primary carer for multiple children. It's hard for women in general who have children. This industry does attract women because of the work-life balance, but it's not always sustainable. If you don't have a support network behind you, it will be hard to do this job. I'd love to see more women come into the industry. But doing it on your own would be hard."

Chris Meaker

Melbourne-based director, head of sales and distribution at non-bank lender Brighten

"I think there's more work to be done [in terms of gender diversity]. It's always been a male-led industry. However, over the last 10 years that I've been here, the amount of female brokers has increased. From our side, my sales team works with more female brokers than ever before. And from a recruitment point of view, especially at Brighten, we've always been very diverse in the jobs that we offer and the people we promote within, whether it's male or female. So we're committed to fostering a more inclusive and diverse workforce. For example, 71.4% of middle managers in Brighten's wider group are women. But, I think there's still more that needs to be done to continue to see more females coming through."