Financial planner launches Facebook group for women in financial services

Wood (pictured) said the group was intended to be an informal page, where women in financial services can support each other and offer advice.

She said: "Too often we're encouraged to compete as women, rather than support each other, so it was very much designed to be somewhere safe."

The Chartered financial planner said while there were other groups for financial services professionals, she had not seen one exclusively for women. 

"I set it up to have a safe space for women to come in and ask other women for advice or just to have somewhere where they can rant if they're going through a hard time that feels safer than maybe their office that might be quite male dominated," she added.

Calling all women in UK financial services. We need you over in our Facebook community, 100% support, zero judgement. https://t.co/fCBN2FdXtj Please come and join the conversation

— Charlotte Wood (@rosewoodfp) January 3, 2020

Wood worked in the City of London for almost a decade before becoming self-employed. She found her city workplace was male dominated and with that came a "lad culture", which she said was an experience shared by other women. Some women have since told her they were expected to make tea and coffee for the office, while one woman recalled missing a job opportunity after refusing to have sex with her boss.

Wood believes the finance sector is still behind on equality in the workspace and hopes the Facebook group will inspire women and men to become more conscious about equality issues and to offer support.

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