According to a survey by Ellevest, a company aimed at helping women manage their money, women’s financial health is at a five-year low and women are not feeling comfortable with their current financial situation. Around 59 per cent of women surveyed report worrying about their finances at least once a week, and a whopping 43 per cent of women actively worry about money at least once a day. That’s more worrying than men reported on both a daily and weekly basis. Inflation and recession fears combined with concerns like reproductive rights and access to childcare leave women fretting about their financial woes more than their male counterparts.
The new survey also revealed, age played a big part in the results – Older women (Gen X and Baby Boomers) are more likely to be worried about the economy. For younger women (Millennials and Gen Z), reproductive rights, job security, the cost of childcare, housing prices and women’s representation in government are weighing on their minds
While women’s and men’s financial health face similar issues, like inflation and consumer confidence, Dr. Sylvia Kwan, chief investment officer at Ellevest said that women are confronted by additional obstacles. The gender pay gap, women’s disproportionate share of student loan debt, the glass ceiling, limited access to paid family leave, reproductive autonomy and the lack of venture capital funds for female entrepreneurs can have an additional impact on female investors. And even inflation can have disparate gender effects. “One of the reasons 77 per cent of women rank inflation as their top financial concern right now is because it is directly affecting their day-to-day lives. In fact, 58 per cent of women say their cost of living has increased, but their salary hasn’t...And since women bear a larger proportion of household duties, including grocery shopping, it falls on women to figure out (and stress about) how to make each dollar stretch further in the face of inflation,” Kwan explained.
A recent survey of asset managers by BNY Mellon Investment Management found that three-quarters of them admit that their organization’s investment products are primarily aimed at men.
According to Kwan, women’s hesitancy to meet with advisors and invest their money stems from women feeling left out of an industry that targets male clients. “The financial industry is dominated by men and was built with men in mind, so it’s easy to see why men would find it easier to leverage financial advisors, invest and build strong foundations,” she describes.