Camilla Love loves the finance industry. The managing director of eInvest loves the industry so much so that she started her own company, F3 — Future Females in Finance, to bring more women into it. The program, which started in 2017, took home the award for Women’s Community Program of the Year at the Women in Finance Awards 2022. Here, we discover more about F3 and how we can support women in the industry
In 2017, you started F3 — Future Females in Finance, which won the Women’s Community Program of the Year at the Women in Finance Awards 2022. Why did you decide to start F3?
It comes down to the fact that I cracked it. I did a pitch for ESG and the deputy chair around the trustee table said: “You know, it’s nice that you’re talking to me about ESG. But where is the gender diversity in your investment team?” I had to put my hand on my heart and say: “I have none.” Thankfully, that has changed substantially now.
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We also had a period of time where we were hiring for a junior and we had 280 applicants, of which 24 were females. They interviewed one girl out of 15.
[Girls are] also just not making it into the industry.
So, putting those all together, that’s why I cracked it.
I had enough. I saw lots of people and organisations out there talking the talk and definitely not walking the walk … I sat there and thought: “How can I solve this myself, from a practical point of view, [and do something] that is really grassroots and fully scalable?” And that’s where I came up with F3.
What does F3 do?
It aims to educate young women about careers and finance and nudge as many of the next generation of female talent into financial services as possible.
We start [with girls] in year 10 and we go through the end of the journey at university. We do that through a number of different things — whether it be careers days or panel sessions and even my podcast — all showcasing great role models. But the backbone of it is actually providing practical work experience. That all works together to educate, to nudge, and to break the myths of what these young women think about financial services.
It’s also there to provide the network and the skills for the pipeline of really fabulous talent to come into the industry in a more comfortable and more supportive setting.
It aims to engage them and show that this industry has so much purpose … but people outside the industry don’t resonate or can’t see that purpose.
What do you think we can be doing on an individual level to welcome more women into the financial services industry?
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.
What does the future look like for women in finance?
I think the future is super bright and I can 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. And I’m just super excited for it.
And 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.
You can find out more about F3 — Future Females in Finance and how Camilla Love is helping encourage and support the next generation of women in financial services on The Adviser Podcast Network.
Tune in to the In Focus: Supporting the next generation of women in finance, episode with Camilla Love, partnered by Mortgage Choice, here:
