International Women’s Day 2016

This year International Women’s Day’s campaign theme is Pledge for Parity.

The lack of parity is obvious, worldwide and in the UK. In this country only 17% of business owners are female, the FTSE 100 companies are struggling to achieve 25% female Board members and only 19% of Licensed Insolvency Practitioners are female.

The World Economic Forum’s prediction for the achievement of gender parity exceeds 100 years, and is increasing.

However there is one area in this country where gender parity has been achieved; 2014 was the first year where more young women entered a formal personal insolvency process than young men. This is not an achievement to be celebrated, but we do not believe that it is damning either.

Most personal insolvencies are due to consumer debt. It would be easy to dismiss this as just being down to irresponsible and excessive spending but we also have to recognise that wages are at a historic low, rents are rising and living costs are high. Young people of both genders are finding it increasingly difficult to manage the increasing demands on their funds.

However many of these personal insolvencies represent young women who are entrepreneurs and have had the courage to take advantage of the opportunities open to them and to risk failure. This courage will help increase the health of the economy.

We all need to provide the information to young people in general and young women in particular to ensure that they receive good financial advice and professional support.

RNF offers free initial consultations, to arrange, please contact us on 01622 764 612 (Maidstone) or 0207 253 7171 (London)  or email: hello@rnfba.com

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