International Women’s Day on the 8th March was an opportunity to raise the profile of women’s issues and celebrate the contribution they make to society. Since a fairly young age, I’ve been interested in personal finance; in a recent survey, I rated my financial knowledge as 8 out of 10, indicating a high level of confidence. In that same survey, women were rating their level of financial knowledge as just 4 out of 10.
As a result, I took the opportunity to ask a few of my female friends how they rated their own levels of financial knowledge. Although not uniform, the highest result came in at just 7 out of 10, with the majority coming out at 5 or lower. When I asked them why I got a range of answer including;
- A dislike of jargon and a perception of complexity
- A lack of time
- A feeling that investments were essentially gambling
This was really interesting to me, as I highlighted the great returns I’d received from investment and asked them if I could do it, why couldn’t they? Without exception, they all agreed that they could – none of them believed that gender was a differentiator in this arena – but none of them was actually investing in the same way that I do.
I suggested that perhaps it was a feeling of exclusion. Did they feel that the industry was male-dominated and that they had no connection with a white, middle-aged man telling them how to handle their investments? (Interesting, those of you that read this blog regularly will know that I am no fan of investment advisors, so feel no particular ‘affinity’ with the people in the financial management industry).
Interesting, recent studies have shown that fewer women than men have a stocks and shares ISA and in addition to this, the ones they do have a less-well-funded. There are numerous potential reasons for this from childcare costs to lower salaries to career breaks, but fundamentally, I believe that fewer women feel financially empowered than men.
To try and correct this, I told my friends that they could start investing from just a few pounds a month. There are a whole host of robo-advisors and low-cost tracker funds that would get them access to the markets. Why should they let fear of the unknown or subconscious bias stop them from accessing them same gains that I do?
I’m not a financial advisor and I’m not a societal expert. But surely more women taking control of their financial futures can only be a good thing! If you’re reading this blog and find value in it, take a moment to forward it to a lady you know could benefit. Hopefully, like you, it will inspire them to take control of their financial future!