Just 23 percent of financial planners are women, a number that inspired a trade group to campaign for more women to the field.

Ever since Manisha Thakor, the founder of MoneyZen Wealth Management, entered the financial services field, she’s been one of the few women at the table. “In my early 20s, I tried to behave like the other people around me by wearing dark suits, being serious and showing no sign of feminine energy, but eventually the real me broke through,” she says.

As her real self, which Thakor describes as “authentically quirky,” she has found her greatest success: Now in her mid-40s, she runs a thriving business helping clients –- who are mostly women –- manage their money, and she is also a popular author, speaker and expert on personal finance issues. She attributes her ability to get ahead in a male-dominated field to her early financial education: Her father taught her about investing when she was 11. She was fascinated and went on to pursue an investment banking career and then an MBA at Harvard University.
Push Is On for More Female Financial Planners

Baldwin, Mike