Episode Summary

The gender wealth gap demonstrates how much change is still needed in today’s business world. This topic is not discussed as frequently as the gender wage gap, but there is a direct correlation between the two. Building on foundational issues raised in our Gender Wage Gap podcast, the gender wealth gap is becoming more of a challenge for women. Listen today to hear Mary Beth Storjohann and Neela Hummel discuss some staggering statistics around the gender wealth gap and what we can do to make a positive impact for change.

What You’ll Learn in this Episode:

• Defining the gender wage gap and gender wealth gap
• Statistics proving the wage gap is still real and how it impacts the wealth gap
• Eye-opening statistics on the gender wealth gap
• Defining the gender investment gap
• Are women more risk averse or is there another explanation?
• The underrepresentation of women in the financial industry
• How this information impacts the gender debt gap
• How the Equal Opportunity Credit Act of 1974 has tried to make a difference
• Why the gender wealth gap is more important than the gender pay gap
• How everyone can help make a systemic change
• How men can make an impact to create change in the gender wealth gap
• The impact men can provide through sponsorship versus mentorship
• The actions women and non-binary people can do to create systemic change
• Why you should fight for more seats instead of being the ‘queen bee’
• Why a world with no wealth gap is a better place

Resources Mentioned on the Show:

• What’s the Gender Wealth Gap, and How Can We Close It?
• Asset Funders Network: Women and Wealth
• Gender Wealth Gap: Families Headed by Women Have Lower Wealth
• CFP Professionals’ Diversity Grows, But Lags U.S. Demographics
• 15 US States Where Women Pay Much More than Men for Mortgages
• State of Small Business Lending: Spotlight on Women Entrepreneurs
• The ‘Pink Tax’: How Gender-Based Pricing Discrimination Undermines Women Economic Opportunity and What to Do About It
• The Pink Tax: Latest Updates and Statistics
• Women are Still Getting a Terrible Deal but Maybe There’s Hope
• All the unpaid labor women did during the COVID recession might have saved us from an economic crisis
• The Weekly Gender Wage Gap By Race and Ethnicity: 2020
• The Gender Gap in Bank Credit Access
• Abacus Academy

Additional Resources:

• The Top 5 Traits That Make Women Awesome Investors
• A Woman’s Guide to Growing Wealth in Your 40s, 50s, and 60s
• The Smart Woman’s Guide to Philanthropy: How to Really Make a Difference
• How to Negotiate Your Salary Like a Pro

Stay Connected:

• Join the Abacus community by connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and on LinkedIn
• Connect with Mary Beth on Twitter, Instagram, and on LinkedIn
• Connect with Neela on Twitter, Instagram, and on LinkedIn

Transcript of the Episode

Neela (00:14):

Hey there. Welcome to the If Money Were Easy podcast, the show where we teach you how to expand what’s possible with your money. We’re your hosts Neela Hummel –

Mary Beth (00:23):

and Mary Beth Storjohann –

Neela (00:24):

– Certified financial planners and co-CEOs of Abacus Wealth Partners. Today on the show we’re going to talk about the gender wealth gap.

Mary Beth (00:33):

But before we jump in, a brief disclosure from our Director of Compliance. This podcast is for educational purposes and is not intended as investment, legal, or tax advice. Any opinion shared is not an opinion of Abacus Wealth Partners. Let’s jump in. Hello Neela.

Neela (00:50):

Oh my gosh, here we are.

Mary Beth (00:52):

Here we are.

Neela (00:53):

In this epic two-part series. Should we start off – why did we break this into two parts, starting with the pay gap and now focusing on the gender wealth gap?

Mary Beth (01:03):

I think the gender pay gap talks about earnings, right? That’s one of the most popular ones. We hear about it. It’s hit every year in the news by media, how much women earn compared to men. And then we’re broken down in recent years by black women, Latinas, AAPI, et cetera. So we’re seeing even further breakdown, but again, that’s the earnings gap and the gender wealth gap talks about ownership. So that’s how much women own and how much they have compared to men. And this is really important again because our net worth, our assets, what the wealth that we have over time impacts our wellbeing, our happiness, our future ability to take care of ourselves. So it’s really important to separate those two things because they’re different beasts. They are related and connected over time. The gender pay gap does influence the gender wealth gap, but there’s different nuances to each. So we broke them down to talk about, again, the importance of each one. And to look with a deeper level at this gender wealth gap that doesn’t get too much attention. It’s starting to come up more, but I think it’s a little bit more nuanced. What do you think?

Neela (02:02):

Absolutely. I think, just to add, you’re right in that the pay gap is – it’s something we hear a lot more about, but when we think about who has the money and who is making the decision with that money, that money is power. And if we aren’t harnessing the power of that money, because we don’t literally have enough of it, that I think has ripple effects in all of society.

Mary Beth (02:29):

Yep. Money is power, and where does that power currently lie? I think it’s really important to acknowledge it and to be able to measure the progress that is happening over time.

Neela (02:38):

Right.

Mary Beth (02:39):

Not fast enough though, let’s be honest.

Neela (02:41):

Yep. Never is.

Mary Beth (02:42):

So before we jump in, let’s take a minute just to acknowledge gender when we’re talking about and discussing the gender wealth gap. We have been talking quite a bit about gender in our recent episodes and so I think it’s important to note, take a step back here that when we talk about women’s gender in general, gender and sex are not the same. So studies and data on gender obviously are not one-size-fits-all. And we take an intersectional approach here at Abacus and with our clients and on this podcast. So the data that we’re looking at when we’re talking about the gender wealth gap, and we’re talking about the gender pay gap, the data tends to be unrepresented of non-binary individuals and other members of the LGBTQ+ community. So just know that statistics are only telling a small part of the story regarding finances.

Neela (03:25):

Yep. Really, really important point.

Mary Beth (03:27):

So I think one article we saw phrased it this way, while sex and gender are not the same construct in this article, we refer to gender wealth gap as opposed to a sex wealth gap for simplicity and to be consistent with both academic literature and common vernacular.

Neela (03:41):

Oh, love that. We should also just make a point about how we want the data to be much more inclusive and that as they continue to track this data in particular, which isn’t great as it is, hopefully as they begin to track it more, that data is more intersectional and inclusive.

Mary Beth (03:59):

Exactly. So the statistics are only telling a small part of the story regarding finances and someone’s ability to manage their money. Credit debt and investments have nothing to do with the chromosomes they were born with or their current gender expression. A lot of this comes from external factors and societal pressures that are at play in a large part of our finances.

Neela (04:19):

Yep.

Mary Beth (04:19):

All right. So we’ll hit on some high level stats of the gender pay gap, and then we’re gonna jump into the gender wealth gap. So do you wanna hit those stats really quickly, Nee that we mentioned? In the last episode.

Neela (04:29):

So super fast. You know, we already know that women and particularly minority women are making less than a hundred cents on the dollar compared to their White male counterparts. So White women are paid 83 cents on the dollar, AAPI women are paid 75 cents, Black women 64 cents, Latinas 54 cents, and our Native American women, 51 cents on the dollar, blah.

Mary Beth (04:54):

Right. So again, just to kick off those very happy statistics and then pivoting into the gender wealth gap. So this is again, more important but lesser known and it’s way bigger than the gender pay gap. So how big is the gender wealth gap? I’d say the most commonly referenced reports are from 2014, and it’s important to note that this data is not kept as current and that it’s skewed. There’s data across the board. But again, the most referenced report from 2014 says that every dollar a White man owns, women own just 32 cents. And for Black and Latina women, they own just 1 cent.

Neela (05:33):

Oof. Yeah. That is so, so painful.

Mary Beth (05:36):

Yeah. It’s, it’s disgusting.

Neela (05:39):

It’s disgusting. Disgusting is the word. So when we think about why that is, in addition to just bashing our heads against the wall, let’s try and unpack why that is the current state of things. I think there’s a lot of things that go into it. I feel like a person’s wealth changes over their lifetime, so their age can significantly skew those results. I think the data, part of the reason that it’s hard to actually track it is because a lot of wealth data is calculated at the household level and not the individual level. Which I think is why the pay gap is so much easier to track because it’s from an individual earner standpoint, not from a household level.

Mary Beth (06:19):

I love that. I think it’s such an important fact to keep in mind the aggregation of the data. It’s so important.

Neela (06:24):

Yeah. So why, why, why, why is it so big? So we hit the pay gap. That’s one of them. What else?

Mary Beth (06:33):

You know, we’ve hit the pay gap in the past. We’ve hit the fact that women do spend less time in the workforce, not always by choice. So 95% of low wage workers, most of whom are people of color, don’t get paid leave, which makes it nearly impossible to keep a job if they have children, sick family members, and injury, et cetera. You know, the other part, even for high earners, we’ve talked about how the traditional gender roles or the fact that most women bring in a smaller portion of household income means that they’re the ones to stay at home if needed. There’s less time in the workforce which means fewer years earning. And building wealth. So that’s a big one. Let’s talk about the investing gap. Tell us about that Nee.

Neela (07:09):

Yeah, that’s such a big one. And you know, I think it’s actually, you can’t really talk about the investing gap without also thinking about the gender pay gap. And the investing gap is essentially that statistically women keep more of their money in cash than their male counterparts, kind of by a significant amount. And so the reason I think that’s really connected to the gender pay gap is that if you are making less money, you probably need more of that money to be accessible in the event of an emergency. And so if you think about that, and we know the benefits of compound interest, the earlier you can invest and the longer you can invest, the better off you will be. That if you’re missing that continuous savings and the continuous benefit of that compound interest by investing early and often the wealth disparity just grows exponentially.

Mary Beth (07:59):

I’m gonna pause here for a second on the investing gap. You know, a lot of people, a lot of narratives out there are that women are afraid of the market or women are too conservative. Do you think that’s true? Or do you think that they keep their money in cash by necessity?

Neela (08:11):

It’s so funny when I hear that women are more risk averse, and I think it’s complete BS. So women are not more risk averse than men. I think women are more risk aware in the sense that they wanna make sure that the money is there for the things that they need. And so that’s connected to the pay gap and that they need to have a certain amount of money that they’re bringing in be accessible to pay for the things that are coming up. But there’s no actual gender component to risk. What we could add is that actually when women and men are both investors, women actually tend to outperform their male counterparts by a significant margin. And they do that actually because they are not getting in and out of the market and they don’t express the same kind of overconfidence of knowing what is happening. So they are more likely to be patient investors and thus reap the long-term rewards of not letting, I hate to say it, their emotions get the better of them when it comes to investing. <laugh>

Mary Beth (09:09):

Sounds like they’re less emotional when it comes to their investments. Yes.

Neela (09:13):

So it’s actually the opposite.

Mary Beth (09:14):

It’s the opposite. It’s the opposite of the narrative that’s out there. When you look at the data, the data does show that women are better investors. I love that you titled it risk aware. I think that women don’t, or we know that women on average don’t see the need to take the unnecessary risk. They receive the advice, they stay the course. They don’t feel that they need to control the outcome and panic and make these in and out moves. And it’s really fun to see that data play out over time for Neela and I, especially to know that women get the advice, you stay the course, and that’s the best thing that you can do because you reap the financial benefits of staying in versus trying to time the market.

Neela (09:54):

Right. And you just, you just kind of hit on something that when you think about the people that are working in money, and the people that are giving women advice and the representation that we really see – tell me about that.

Mary Beth (10:08):

At the end of the day, the industry was not built for women. You and I are minorities in this industry. Clients in general are minorities in this industry. The financial industry is dominated by men, and I was going to say White men and yes, White men. The financial industry is dominated by White men. And one of the reasons that women do invest less is because there’s no representation. There’s minimal representation. So as of 2022, about 76% of certified financial planners are men, and only 23% are women. We are very proud of our numbers here at Abacus, where 50% to 60% of our CFPs currently identify as women. 98% of mutual fund dollars are managed by men. And there’s just a lack of diversity in terms of race, gender, identity, et cetera. So the industry has been making improvements and strides to improve in the gender representation area in terms of racial equity. There is so much room to go. There has been progress over the years for gender equity. However, we’re still lagging behind. And so when you have an industry where men are constantly giving advice through their lens, through their lens to clients, the biases come into play. If you look at the financial services industry, how many articles still exist? I’ve been in the industry for almost 20 years and I am still getting articles in my inbox, “How to Work With a Female Client,” “How to Communicate With Women Better,” “How to Make Sure Your Female Client Stays Invested,” or et cetera, et cetera. The fact that we’re still teaching men, I mean, I guess that’s just like life, right? We’re still teaching men how to better communicate with women, how to be better listeners, how to guide their clients along the fact that this is still the topic of interest because we haven’t been able to figure it out yet, I guess, is kind of shocking. And the idea, again, that women in general are a niche is just a whole nother story. Nevermind talking about the complexity that underlies the individual psychographics and demographics of women, but we won’t go there.

Neela (11:57):

And it’s so funny that you say that because those articles, we find them absurd. But to really connect for a lot of people on how absurd those are, switch the gender and then see how it reads. “How to Connect With Your Male Clients.” People would be like, what?! <laughs>

Mary Beth (12:14):

We should write that one. Let’s write that one. Yeah.

Neela (12:16):

We should write that article. Okay. I’m writing that down right now <laughs>. But it’s the idea of how to work with 51% of the population – is like so bonkers.

Mary Beth (12:27):

Yep. Going down to, there’s nuances again, who’s addressed first in the emails, who’s addressed first on the letters, the reports, et cetera. There are so many ways that the industry can bring women along. Right? So going on beyond, nevermind the investment gap, the industry gap, the fact that women are out of the workforce more. Tell me a little bit about the debt gap.

Neela (12:44):

Ooh, yeah. So you do know right now that women are graduating at a higher rate than men from college and from graduate school. What that also means is they are taking on more student loan debt. And so in terms of the total amount of debt that they have, both with student loans and then other forms of debt, again, influenced by them making less with the gender pay gap, they carry more debt than their male counterparts. I think we should also note here too, that it is easier for us to be overcharged for things like mortgages. We have had less access to home ownership. I mean, if, if we can just even go back before the Equal Credit Opportunity Act was passed in 1974, we were not allowed to take on a loan without our husband or our fathers or a male co-signer.

Mary Beth (13:34):

Credit card. We couldn’t have a credit card.

Neela (13:35):

1974.

Mary Beth (13:36):

Credit cards. I, I still get so angry every time I think about this one, this makes me so angry.

Neela (13:42):

And again, all these things, it’s the reason that the wealth gap is so much worse than the pay gap is because these things compound over time. And if you think that you’re only kind of getting started way later in the game, of course there’s gonna be a gap.

Mary Beth (13:56):

I want to talk for just a minute about, again, going back to this Equal Credit Opportunity Act. So 1974, and one of the things you mentioned in the beginning of this episode is that money is power. And the idea of the wealth gap and the generational wealth and how many women have had to stay in relationships during this time. They couldn’t leave, they couldn’t get credit, they couldn’t get a loan, they couldn’t take care of themselves. It is mind boggling to think of the generational impact on women and their families for having to stay in this environment and how it carries through the family line and the fact that we’re so far behind. But I think it’s important to, again, lock that in, even though we have made so much progress. But looking back to the family and how that impacts generations to come, when women have had to stay and they haven’t been able to go out on their own and they didn’t have the power to have their own bank accounts or their own mortgage or their own credit card, what did that do to those individuals and the lineage behind them?

Neela (14:50):

Right. I love that you just, you highlighted that because it’s essentially, you know, we talk about money being power. Money is also choice.

Mary Beth (14:57):

Yep. Independence.

Neela (14:58):

Having the choice to be able to choose yourself or to be able to put your kids first or to be able to leave a toxic relationship, all of that, it matters.

Mary Beth (15:08):

I think about that sometimes. Like how many people had to stay because they had no other choice.

Neela (15:14):

It was really, really awful. So if we think about it, we’re focusing heavily on the gender wealth gap, why is it so much more important than the gender pay gap?

Mary Beth (15:23):

Why is it so much more important? Well, first wealth is the more holistic measure of inequality because it takes into account things like investments, emergency savings, debt inheritances, et cetera. So all these are all huge contributors to a person’s long-term financial stability and power. So inside it’s more important because inside of the wealth gap it takes the pay gap into play. So it’s already accounted for, but the wealth gap expands the pay gap to also include the pink tax, the debt gap, everything else that we just previously mentioned. So it basically puts our arms around the whole story as opposed to the pay gap is just a piece of the story. But when we talk about, again, the compounding effect of all of these individual things, that’s why they add up. And that’s why the gap is so large because it’s the compounding effect of all of these things that are stacked against the women.

Neela (16:10):

Right. And I think it’s also the compound effect and taking that even further out from an intergenerational standpoint, and we say equal credit act, but even going back further, especially for African-American women and having, dealing with slavery and Jim Crow, being denied mortgages, not being able to buy houses. All those areas that have multi-generational impacts in terms of wealth building, in terms of what you’re actually able to pass on to the next generation and how you spend your money now for your descendants for society. Right now, the choice of how to spend your money is related also to how much you have. Money talks.

Mary Beth (16:50):

Exactly. At the end of the day, this gap, the wealth gap is the strongest indicator of future inequality. When you’re looking at life and finances through this lens, you’re able to see everything that’s stacked up from a gender level, from a racial level as well. What people are coming against, what they have looking forward. Even if we eliminated all these things, what would it look like and what got us here, in the future impacts this lens, and I think opens the doors to a lot of answers, right? So with all of this incredibly optimistic <laughs> information and news, there is still control. And there are things. When you’re fighting against the system, it can feel exhausting, right? Because these are systemic issues that we are fighting against and they will require systemic answers. We can’t change it necessarily individually, overnight, but that does not mean that we don’t have some sort of control and some things that we can’t do. Nee, let’s hit on what everyone can do. From like the wider lens.

Neela (17:47):

From a wider lens in general, and this includes absolutely everybody, is use your financial power for good. Decide how you’re gonna spend your money in a very intentional way. You can buy from women-led businesses. You can buy from women-owned businesses. You can invest in female entrepreneurs, invest in a more impactful way, participate in the local political system. Think about how you’re raising the next generation. Talk to kids about money. Talk about how you can actually use your money for good, both from an investing standpoint and from a philanthropic standpoint. I think this is also, this is kind of a funny one, but avoid the negative stereotypes. You know, we’ve talked about women “don’t take risk.” No. Let’s just stop that. Let’s stop these ideas.

Mary Beth (18:33):

My favorite is like, women or girls are bad at math or girls don’t like math. Can we nix that one also?

Neela (18:37):

Literally no, zero correlation. Zero correlation, stop pigeonholing women early. So let’s drop the negative stereotypes, let’s drop the gender jokes around this sort of stuff.

Mary Beth (18:49):

Oh, the jokes.

Neela (18:50):

Everybody can do that. Okay, so that is everyone. We’re talking about a systemic issue. What do you think about, what can our male counterparts do?

Mary Beth (19:01):

Ooh, this is one of my favorite topics. What can men – men, what can you do? First and foremost, be an ally. I think that’s the most important thing, using your voice. Women cannot make progress without men. That’s just how it is. We need your voices in the room, at the table. We need your advocating for us, we need you sponsoring us. We need you to be an ally. You need to be the ones that are also calling out the negative stereotypes, shutting down the jokes. I think it’s really important that men play an active role in this space. Men can also model equity at home. I think it’s really important. We talk about gender roles all the time. So what does equity look like in your home? Who is doing the dishes, the laundry, the emotional support of children, ensuring that there is equality there and the roles are divided in a healthy way so that your children and your family see, or if you don’t have children, just so that it is modeled in an equitable way that ensures balance there. The other thing I would say for men is sponsorship. Not just mentorship. So there is no shortage of male mentors there who are willing to lend their advice to others, other women, to other people, to bring them along in their careers to help them get a step up. The idea of sponsorship though is that you are sponsoring somebody, you’re getting them into the room, you are offering them the job. You’re advocating for them. So you’re not just telling somebody what to do. You are helping to get that person there and actually lending your name to their name or making sure that you’re advocating for them. So sponsorship and not just mentorship is really, really key because mentorship is wonderful and that you’re coaching somebody to improve their life. That’s also wonderful. But sponsorship ensures that you’re opening the doors for those people to make their way to the tables.

Neela (20:40):

So important. I love that.

Mary Beth (20:42):

Incredibly important.

Neela (20:42):

We hear so much about mentorship where it is so much more than that. Mentorship is great. Sponsorship is where we wanna see the action.

Mary Beth (20:48):

Exactly, exactly. So, I’d say the other thing is just listening to women’s stories, men in general. So going back to being an ally, the sponsorship, the mentorship, listening to women and their lived experiences. They’re different. There are unique experiences. There is not a woman that you will meet that has not experienced some sort of microaggression in her life. And again, not listening to respond, but listening to understand is really important. And so just sitting down with the women in your life and asking what their lived experiences are, their feelings about money, their feelings about relationships, whatever those, those nuances are. But getting to understand how women feel in their careers, how they feel about finances. It could be your employee, it could be your family member, but listening to learn. Will build your empathy and really build the support network for women.

Neela (21:31):

That’s great.

Mary Beth (21:32):

So what can women do for themselves? Women and non-binary people? What can they do?

Neela (21:37):

So part of it, we talked about the gender pay gap, self-advocate, push yourself in terms of the roles that you apply for, the money you ask for. Make sure that you’re always taking care of yourself there. Don’t feel bad about asking for or about demanding really what you deserve.

Mary Beth (21:52):

I like demand.

Neela (21:53):

Demand, fun word demand. Let’s not ask, let’s just demand. And I would also say co-advocate. There’s this phenomenon that I’ve read about that was really prevalent in the eighties and nineties and it was this queen bee syndrome because there was such gender inequity in business that it was almost this idea of women hating on other women.

Mary Beth (22:13):

Women, yep. Right?

Neela (22:14):

Yes. Because they’re like, Hey, I fought my way to the top. There’s only room for one token woman here and it’s gonna be me. And so let’s flip the narrative on that and co-advocate, co-sponsor, and really make the table bigger. Don’t fight for that one seat. That should be a lot more seats. So that’s probably, that is a huge one. The other thing I’d say, you know, to address what we’ve talked about with the investing gap is start investing. Create a financial plan and stick to it. Really understand where your money is going, how it’s investing. Make sure you have the right amount in cash without it being too much. Always recommend that everybody really have a chunk of money in cash that I would call a financial freedom fund or an F-off fund. Basically enough money in cash where you could afford to leave a toxic relationship, a bad work environment, et cetera. So always be able to make a choice with your money to the extent that you’re able to. The other piece I would say is where you spend your money matters. I know we talked about that with everybody, but if women as a whole really focused on how we spent our dollars, we are so powerful when working together. If you are favoring female-owned and female-run businesses, that makes a big difference. Start your own business, support other female-led businesses. And then I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention, honestly, pick your partner very carefully. I think you and I both, when we got into our relationships with our husbands, they are the most equal-minded men I think we’ve ever met. And we had very frank conversations about where each of us wanted to go in our careers and who would be taking a step back when it needed to happen. And it was both of our husbands and they’re both our rocks.

Mary Beth (24:06):

Yeah. I think the partnership aspect, who you choose as a partner, it is incredibly important. And it’s one of the things that will impact your wealth, your career, your family. There’s so much tied into that. And I think as somebody who experiences somebody who tells me all the time how lucky I am to have Brian and how lucky I am that he’s such a great dad and how lucky I am that we do these things, it’s not luck. We chose, we consciously chose to partner together. We consciously choose to communicate and work on our relationships. And so I think that’s one of the things to – obviously there’s a luck component involved in terms of when and where we met. But when you are in a relationship, again, going back to that financial freedom and flexibility to exit if it’s not working out, but also wanting to make it work. And so knowing that, knowing it consciously takes work and, and not everybody, not everybody wants to work like Neela and I do and adjust careers and have those expectations. But again, making sure that you choose a partner that is supportive, that is transparent, will talk to you in terms of your finances, in terms of, you know, just what you each need and how you would like to grow in your relationship. I think those things are really impactful for you as a woman if you happen to have a family for what they see at the home as well. So I think choosing your partner is a huge thing.

Neela (25:21):

So important.

Mary Beth (25:22):

And I also am a big fan of starting your own business. If you can’t have your needs met and you see a need that is being unmet in a marketplace, starting your own business is a great way to step out to impact more lives, to impact your own wealth and to grow.

Neela (25:37):

It’s scary, but super worth the plunge. So in conclusion as we wrap this up, why is a world with no wealth gap a better place?

Mary Beth (25:50):

In general, women are better investors and women invest in things that are better for the world. And women are more philanthropic than men. So when women have money, when women have power, the world is better. That’s like a mic drop comment right there. There’s other reasons too, <laugh>, that’s just the headliner. And then from there, let’s see, women run better businesses. So diversity makes companies more profitable, less risky, and more innovative.

Neela (26:15):

And that’s not your opinion, that’s just data.

Mary Beth (26:17):

That’s the data. Studies show that startups with at least one woman founder perform better. And in times of crisis, women-led companies have tended to weather the storm better.

Neela (26:26):

Data.

Mary Beth (26:28):

Yep. Women also tend to reinvest a lot more of their income into their families and communities. So going back again, like philanthropic and giving back, they do roughly double their male counterparts. So women’s prosperity is demonstrably good for everyone.

Neela (26:41):

Amazing. We should also add, the one thing that just occurred to me too is that women investors overall are also more interested in ESG, environmental, social, and governance investing. And so you couple that with being better investors, more interested in investing, which has a more positive impact on society and the environment. The fact that they give more money away and that they invest more money in the next generation community – that’s a nice little recipe for success.

Mary Beth (27:08):

Exactly. So that’s an overview of the wealth gap today for you. There’s a lot again that goes into play and the data still isn’t totally clear in this area. There’s a variety of reasons that it’s not completely clean. But just again, starting, you’re looking at from 2014, every dollar that a White man owns, women own just over 32 cents. And Black and Latina women own just 1 cent. So in closing, take those stats with you, know that we wanna make progress in this area, and pick one to two things that you can do to make progress in your own life or in the lives of the women who are around you.

Neela (27:39):

All of us. Together we can do it.

Mary Beth (27:42):

Financial knowledge is for everyone. If you enjoyed today’s episode of If Money Were Easy and you’re looking for more tools and resources to expand what’s possible with your money, head to www.LearnWithAbacus.com, Abacus Wealth Partners’ e-learning platform, offering a variety of courses to empower you in your financial life.