Female brokers: are there enough?
Publication Date: Friday, 7 March 2025
This article originally appeared in Australian Broker.
In honour of International Women’s Day, we asked market participants their thoughts
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.
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.”