International Women’s Day: The Future for Women in FinTech

I think International Women’s Day is a great way to respect and admire all the amazing women in the world, and everything they’ve accomplished.

It’s a day to remind ourselves how far we’ve come, but also how far we still have to go.

I think it can be really tricky to bring yourself back to why it’s important to care about the traits of others that might be different to yourself. I think we all know on paper it’s important, but we need to not treat it like a quota, and actually understand the value of diversity and inclusivity. And say, ‘in my team, why do I want people with different backgrounds than me, that live different lives than me, what value does that bring me and what my team has to offer to the business?’

I think if we focus more on those kinds of traits, rather than ticking boxes, it will just become a lot more natural and people will appreciate it a lot more.

I think I’ve been really lucky to have a lot of very strong, kind, smart female managers in my life, starting from my first job. On the flipside, I’ve worked with a lot of developers who are normally male in my experience, and they’ve all been amazing and very, very kind. But I think knowing that I spend a lot of my time with a bunch of men in my day-to-day, and then going back to my female manager, who have always been really supportuive and really pushed me in my career, i can really se the juxtaposition and I can understand why having both has been really important to me.

I think that, surprisingly, being able to have flexible working has been hugely important. Not just as women, but for diversity in the workplace in general, it’s allowed a lot of people to join teams and businesses that they never would have had access to otherwise. Opening the world up to be able to work together has been a hugely positive change. I say that as someone who loves coming into the office, but it’s really amazing to be able to work with people from all over the world.

This is a relatively obvious answer that I feel a lot of people might say, but women in leadership positions. I think there are too many occasions where businesses say “Oh, 40% of our staff is female”, but if 38% of that 40% is all entry level individual contributor roles, then you’re not really tackling the bigger issue.

I think women have to do so much more to fight to get into leadership positions, whether it be wanting children or a family, and the presure that puts on, but also breaking barriers and breaking into roles that have stereotypically been held by men. I don’t think that problem has made nearly enough progress as I wish it would have at this stage.

I really love it! The Chip team have some really amazing women, and we do some really great stuff together. I’m always impressed by how smart, kind, foreward thinking, progressive and strong everyone is, so i’ve really enjoyed that experience.

I’ve also been given the opportunity ot go to a few conferences and talks where I’ve also sen a lot of women in the financial space really thrive, and I think that surprised me a little bit when I first came into this industry. I think i probably had misconceptions that there wouldn’t be as many of those inspirational women in the role.

My first piece of advice would be to find a coach or a mentor, given that this is a lot of the reason why I have a lot of confidence in this space. I also had an amazing product coach who was a female in a director role, and it made such a massive difference to me. There are a lot of other ways you can go about that which might not be as expensive as a normal coaching program.

I’ve actually joined a company to offer mentoring to women for this reason. I think you should definitely try and find somebody who can talk through your concerns, and help you with some of the soft skills that might help you get over some of those fear barriers you have.

It’s the one day where everyone can come together and celebrate women. It’s a chance to talk about the gender gap and gender inequality which I think are really important conversation to have.

Though we should have a multiple days where we celebrate women!

Mainly because having different people who come from different backgrounds can bring different points of view and opinions. Diversity and inclusivity brings creativity. Working in product, it’s good to have a balance. For example, if we just had men in product and design, we would end up designing a product that is tailored to men and their needs. So, i think its important to have people, both male and female, but different backgrounds to empathise with both sides and bring both perspectives in.

I think it’s very much based on personality, and this is a generalisation, but what women bring is that sense of calm, organistion and rigour and making sure that everyone is on the same page. The other skill that women tend to have is a lot of empathy, and I feel that’s what differentiates women in leadership positions, and trying to understand what the problems are before reacting and trying to solve them.

I think there is a lot more peer support, there’s a lot more talked about. Im part of a few women in fintech groups and there's a lot of empowerment and positivity. Everyone’s really enthusiastic, and it’s a nice community to be part of.

It makes me feel more confident, and i feel I can then bring that to my everyday work and it has a positive effect all around.

Probably two areas. One, around the gener pay gap. The other, is having more women in leadership and executive positions. For example, here at Chip, we have Sharon as our COO which is super inspiring to see a woman in the executive leadership team, but I know that’s not the norm. In fintech and in a load of S&P 500 companies, the boards and the exec teams, are mainly white males. So, i’d love to see that change, and yow know, have someone that resonates with you in those positions - that would be really inspiring.

A woman that I 100% admire is Whitney Wolfheard, the founder of bumble. First of all, if I remember correctly, she is the youngest self-made billionaire. She’s a badass. Bumble IPO’d when she was CEO, and she did it all with a baby. She was the co-founder of Tinder and dealt with a lot of sexism, and she basically turned that into an amazing idea that empowered women and completely changed the norms around dating.

I’m proud to be a woman in fintech. There’s not that many women in fintech, particularly in product. It’s not an industry that people associate with women straight away, and it feels good to be appreiacted, make a difference and be working in something that isn’t a traditionally female dominated industry.

Just do it. There are a lot of stereotypes and it might look intimidating, but fintech is different to traditional finance. I think fintech is more open, and smaller startups tend to be more diverse and dynamic.

I say, just go for it and try it.

It’s a celebration of women. To be honest, becoming a mum really made me have a new found respect on top of what it was already. I think it’s just an amazing day to sit down and say, you know what, women are awesome.

I think it’s important to draw on everyone’s experience of life, because everyone has a different point of view; everyone has lived a different life, or a different aspect to life.

Well, I started off in physiotherapy, then i moved to freelancing graphic design before moving into UX design, so I have a whole range of experience in a lot of different industries. I worked as a freelancer on my own for six years, so coming back into the workplace was actually really nice to see that people are more approachable, things are more open. I don’t know if it’s always been that way, but from my perspective, it was new.

I think more could be done for working mums, and make them feel more comfortable and included in the workplace I suppose. Trying to balance your at home schedule with your work schedule and it conflicting, you can feel a bit lonely sometimes.

It’s going to sound cliche, but my mum. She is just such a strong character. I’d probably say she is the backbone of the family. She’s been through a lot, her family has been through a lot, and she has just been able to pick us back up, and pick herself back up at the same time, all the time, again and again.

It’s completely new to me. When I was moving from graphic design to UX design, I was completely open. I was happy to work anywhere and then find my niche. Fintech has been really fun, because it’s different and it’s made me think about things that i didn’t necessarily think about before.

As a woman, you may not necessarily think about investing as much. You do think about your savings, but the investing route, not so much, but working in fintech has pushed me in that direction.

You know what, I think women have a million things on their mind all the time, 24/7, so it’s in our nature to look out for other people, help other people and then we forget about ourselves.

So, being able to take a beat, do something for yourself and your future is really important.

International Womens Day, especially in the professional workplace, is a time to reflect on where women are in the workplace now compared to decades ago. In a lot of the spaces we work in, there weren’t a lot of women and it wasn’t as easy to progress as it is now.

I think it’s a time to think about who the women are in your life that you’re close to, and who have made an impact on your life, and that you admire.

It’s a day to remind ourselves how far we’ve come, but also how far we still have to go.

I guess it’s really important for all people to be able to walk into a place and not feel like they’re really out of place or uncomfortable.

I only entered the workplace a few years ago, right before COVID, then COVID happened and i think the flexibility that has been afforded to people by being able to remote work has got to be, hands down, the biggest thing.

I think probably diversity of class, and i think that’s across all races.

Probably my mum. I’ve always admired how she does so much all the time, but is also an extremely intelligent, successful women.

She had so many kids, and had so much to do, but she is extremely career-driven and was very focused on having her own things going on outside of her family and her kids.

She’s got such strong and fulfilling relationships in her life as well, whether it be her friends or her siblings, so she’s always been a real role model and someone for me to look up to.

Even if you don’t see yourself represented somewhere, don’t let that effect or hinder where you think you might belong. It’s really important to just try, and do what you want to do and don’t get too much in your head because noones thinking about it as much as you are and that’s a good thing.

It’s a day we do two things. We celebrate the progress women have made in the workplace, but we also focus on the challenges we still have in breaking any of the issues women face in the workplace to have a successful career.

I have a strong belief that for any organisation to build the biggest value for whatever it is they’re doing, you need lots of frames of reference to work with. You want people who are analytical and people who are introverts; people who thinking really creatively and pictorially, as well as people are very logical. This creates better solutions and better outcomes for the organisation, and for whatever it is you’re trying to create.

The broader the range of diversity you have in an organisation, the richer the result you’re going to get. It’s not always easy to achieve because you have to, as an individual working in a diverse team, adapt and adjust the way you work to get the best out of people who think differently from you. It doesn’t always naturally sit with you, so sometimes you have to really make an effort.

I think there’s been a huge amount of change in the support for flexible working and the ability to balance home life with outside-of-work life with working, while still progressing in your career.

We’re very lucky in the UK in terms of the support with maternity pay, or caring for others in your family, which typically, not always, falls to the woman in the household. I think there’s still a lot to do, though.

There is still a ceiling, whether it’s a glass one or not, I’m not entirely sure. It’s not necessarily imposed, but part of it is providing means and mechanisms for women to feel that they have the ability to progress higher and higher in organisations. Whether that’s inner confidence, lack of imposter syndrome, or whatever mental blocks we put in place. There’s also those flexibilities I mentioned earlier that were really positive, well they tend to dwindle the higher you go. So, I think a lot more work still needs to be done to make that flexibility available because we are losing really good people the higher and higher up you go because of those.

On a bigger scale, a lot has been done on the family side and flexible working practices, but less has been done for people who are caring for other, like the older generation. It’s not really been recigized that it’s something we might have to do.

I look around me, very closely. I think we’ve got an unbelievably talented group of people at Chip. I don’t tend to be the person who looks at famous people, I prefer someone who seems a bit more authentic and someone I can relate to, which is generally people I’ve come into contact with.

The most inspirational people are generally people I’ve worked with. They give you that boost to get up in bed in the morning, or they’re people who have put their arm around you when you’ve had a really crap day, or they’ve tackled something that you’ve thought ‘the way they’ve dealt with that was absolutely brilliant’. It might be a momentary thing, it might not feel inspirational the next day, but in that moment, i’ve remembered it.

I honestly don’t think about it that much. I don’t really sit back and think, ‘I’m a woman in fintech - do I feel anything different?’ I do think there is a need for more woman coming through the technology side of it; there is still an imbalance. We may be in a fintech organisation, but in the tech and engineering space, it is still a very male dominated area and I don’t know why. I don’t know if it’s because of the schooling, or people don’t tend to go into the subjects later on in uni, but that might be changing as the times have gone on.

As a woman in fintech, I think it’s very vibrant and there is a lot of opportunity. I think it’s the one space where anything can go. They don’t have the old traditions that older institutions do have.

I think for me, women need to be more proactive in supporting others, and it’s actually the more subtle things that people need to do. We’re our own worst critics. So, when I see someone who has done something well, I actually call it out and tell them: “you’re amazing for what you’re doing”. It might just be for doing their normal job, but they’re amazing for doing that. That can give someone such a huge boost and we should do more of that. We should push our colleagues and friends up.