Between this lack of confidence, the gender pay gap, and the fact that women live longer than men, some experts are collectively calling these barriers the investing gap. It’s not surprising, then, that men report having more financial confidence than women and that 56 percent of women leave investing decisions to their husbands. Parents may also teach their kids about money differently, depending on the child’s gender: One poll found that boys were more likely than girls to learn about investing, taxes and credit scores from their parents. The financial services industry has long catered to men, making money management historically elusive to women. It’s what sticks in your mind.” In other words, perhaps women become more interested than men in pinching pennies and more embarrassed about their frivolous spending because it’s how we’ve been socialized.Īnd it’s not just magazines. “The media talks about women and money in a certain way, so the people reading it start talking that way, too. Nevertheless, the myth of the frivolous female spender won’t seem to go away. Frivolous spending has nothing to do with gender. Over all, single men spend slightly more than women, but that may also be because they outearn women. But men spend more on other things, like takeout, and, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, alcohol and cars. Women spend more than men on apparel, according to Smartasset, a financial technology company. Money isn’t gendered, but men and women deal with it quite differently. Supercars and yachts and people looking quite smug.” “With men, money is all about power suits and investing and long-term goals. “Women are told to cut back on coffee to save up for a new pair of shoes,” Boden said. Of those aimed at men, 70 percent emphasized making money. She commissioned a study on the gendered language around money - and found that 65 percent of financial articles in women’s magazines categorized women as excessive spenders. She had a light bulb moment: “If a woman who was so confident with money that she started her own bank was making fun of her frivolous spending … Had I been influenced by these magazines my whole life?” “The next day, I walked into my office and made a joke about spending too much on shoes,” she said. Looking for clues, she noticed that the women’s magazines focused on saving money and deal hunting, while the men’s talked about money in terms of power and luxury. Boden, the founder and chief executive officer of Starling Bank, based in Britain, had been wondering why her customers were mostly men. “I wanted to look at the language around men, women and money,” she said. Anne Boden was at the salon one morning, flipping through some magazines.
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