Women Invest 29% Less than Men? This Survey Says Yes By Paula Mariani, Director of user experience at N26
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nvesting can be a powerful way to safeguard your financial future. But, given the current state of the financial landscape, if you identify as a woman, you could be at a serious disadvantage. We women often face a range of external factors that negatively impact how much we earn in our lifetimes. This often means we have less disposable income to contribute to our pensions and savings goals than men. Currently, European women who invest, contribute 29 percent less than European men each month. This limits our ability to grow our wealth and enjoy more freedom and flexibility as we age. But, the pay gap isn’t the only reason we’re not investing as much. A male-dominated environment, inaccessible knowledge, maledominated language, and an absence of femaleled conversations surrounding investing can all prevent women from entering the field. To better understand the reasons for this investment gap, The Mobile Bank N26 conducted a survey about women and investing, in which more than 16,000 people from five European countries were asked about their investing behavior.
What keeps women from investing? It may not come as a surprise that the investing landscape is largely perceived as male-dominated. In our large-scale study, 64 percent of both male and female investors and 56 percent of noninvestors agreed that this was the case. A lack of female visibility within the investing space can be intimidating. This leaves many women feeling as though they don’t have an entry point into the world of investing. Additionally, 54 percent of non-investing women cited a lack of funds, compared to 43 percent of male non-investors, as a main obstacle to investing. The 11 percent difference could point to the costs of childcare and the gender pay gap that many women face.
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The behavior of investors complements that of non-investors. Over 70 percent of women who invest want to increase their contributions in 2022, so the benefits of investing are clearly being realized by those with a foot in the door already.
“By appreciating that women generally prefer safer investments and clarifying the risk profiles of different investments, we could reduce some of the anxiety non-investors may have and encourage them to begin investing.“
What we can learn from women who invest The N26 Online bank survey revealed some fascinating and surprising insights. According to respondents, 39 percent of women who haven’t invested yet said a lack of knowledge stopped them from investing, and only 48 percent of women who do invest consider themselves knowledgeable about the field. However, 77 percent of investing women said they felt confident making investment decisions. That means that a significant percentage of women investors are reportedly comfortable navigating and making investment decisions without feeling knowledgeable in the field. This indicates two things: 1. Women are less likely to consider themselves knowledgeable. 2. Confidence often comes with experience— something non-investors lack access to. Taking into account that the primary reason women don’t invest is that they lack funds, this gives
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