‘Be the cheer squad for future generations’, women in finance told

When Camilla Love first joined the financial services industry 20 years ago, her hard-earned double degree from a leading university secured her the role of unofficial personal assistant to the chairman. Back then, she knew this wasn’t the reality for her male colleagues.

Today, Ms Love is the managing director of eInvest and founder of Future Females in Finance (F3), a program specifically designed for young women to uncover what it means to work in the financial services industry, which was crowned the Women’s Community Program of the Year at the Women in Finance Awards 2022.

She recently joined the ifa Show podcast to provide insight into how professionals can foster and support the next generation of female talent.

While Ms Love admitted that both men and women are now afforded an “introduction to the dishwasher” in the office, she remained conflicted on whether the industry has “changed a lot” or “hasn’t changed enough”.

“What I have seen really change over the last little while is all those women lifting up more women,” Ms Love said.

“Back in the day, there weren’t that many of us. There was lots of competition, and I don’t think we were as supportive as we could have been. Today, that has absolutely turned on its head,” she reflected.

“That cheer squad has definitely flourished over the years.”

Commenting on how she measures the success of her program, Ms Love reported: “For me, it’s all about that full-circle approach to really change the dial.”

Namely, she reiterated the importance of approaching the task as a team.

“It has to be everyone’s job to pull everyone through, support them, give them a good elbow nudge, and just go.”

Moreover, Ms Love advised advisers and other professionals to find someone to champion.

“Find someone in that next generation that you can pull through and sponsor, and engage and support into the industry. It has to be everyone’s job to pull [young women] through”.

“If we keep hiring from the same pool, we’re not going to widen the pool. So try to widen that pool as fast and as critically as possible by trying to nudge and sponsor as many people into the industry as possible,” she added.

Ms Love remained optimistic about the future of financial services and the young talent she has come across in her F3 Program.

“I think the future is super bright. And can I say that, because the next generation of female talent is just so amazing. I can see it every day; they're fully well-equipped, they're super curious, [and] they have really great technical skills.

“As a mum of a young daughter, I can’t wait to welcome her into the industry when she gets here, because I think it’ll just be so bright,” she concluded.

To hear what else Camilla Love had to say, listen here.