Despite progress over the past decades, 60 per cent of women believe that men still have great dominance in the investment world. A new initiative - Women's Capital - in which we are proud to participate, aims to dispel some of the stereotypes and provide the tools necessary for more women to take on the unique challenges and opportunities of the financial landscape, so that they can invest more and level the playing field.
Why do women invest less than men?
According to a recent study by online bank N26, women invest 29% less than men, but almost 2 in 3 intend to invest more in 2022.
The research shows that women who invest have a greater preference for banking products, such as deposit accounts (37%). In addition, Italians invest more in mutual funds (20%) than stocks (15%) or real estate (16%). The popularity of cryptocurrencies is increasing, with almost one in three women saying they buy and sell cryptocurrencies.
42% of women surveyed say that finding good value for money, such as low fees and interest rates, is the most important aspect of their investment choices. Men, on the contrary, tend to prioritise returns.
In Italy, then, there is a problem related to poor financial education. Among the G20 countries, in fact, we are in second to last place on this specific aspect. Moreover, many Italian women do not work (around 43% of the active female population, 7 million people) and even when they do work they suffer from numerous gender differences that disadvantage them, such as the income and pension gap, due to intermittent careers, often caused by family situations, which negatively impact their ability to save.
Women's Capital. Financial education to close the gender gap
Capitale Donna is an initiative promoted by SCAI and supported by more than 30 investment-related businesses in Italy (including us) that aims to promote greater financial education for women.
The campaign, which kicks off on 24 October, includes a series of messages, disseminated on the main social platforms, to encourage more women to invest, addressing four key topics: the stock market, the market, listing and shares.
In addition to this, a series of events and viral initiatives will take place in the coming months, such as the presentation of the book 'Little Women Invest' by Laura Tardino on the same 24 October.
Can equity crowdfunding entice women to invest more?
Laura Tardino herself says on this subject: 'Equity crowdfunding for women aims to facilitate access to credit for women who want to obtain financing to create their own company (we often talk about start-ups). It is good not to confuse the two. Investing your own money to create a company is one thing, investing your own money to grow your savings is another.
Women lag behind on both, but my work and my book refer to the latter. Facilitating women's access to alternative forms of financing to create new businesses could certainly increase the number of women entrepreneurs, women with income to invest and thus pink investments.
Seen from the other side, that of those who put up the capital, crowdfunding makes it possible to invest in the shares of start-ups, which by definition are companies in their infancy, whose solidity in terms of income is unfortunately far from certain, and therefore to which I would suggest an absolutely limited exposure, also because the big limit, to date, in my opinion, is the non-diversification, that is, betting on just one company, unlike what normally happens by investing for example in a mutual fund or in an ETF, which allow exposure to hundreds of companies with a single investment.
We at 2meet2biz.com are proud to participate in this initiative - and both as a company led by a female CEO and as a platform dedicated to small investors, it could not be otherwise.