RESEARCH
My starting point was understanding whether society had any influence on the dynamic between women and finance. And it turns out, it has. Equal financial rights for women became law less than 50 years ago.
In developed countries, laws were passed in the mid 70's granting a woman equal financial rights. Before this, a woman was required to obtain her husband's permission in order to open a bank account.
Revealing the financial system was built on a foundation of systemic discrimination towards women. Dependency on a man was a requirement for a woman to gain access to the system. Since women's financial rights are a relatively new concept, the challenges we face today, spawn from the first generation of women exiting this legacy system.
With a comprehensive understanding of the landscape, I set out to observe what real women had to say about their financial challenges, not individually, but as a collective – to identify themes. I looked for places where these conversations were happening naturally. I found them in forums.
I read through countless posts. Women were actively seeking financial advice anonymously - from a group of women they didn't know and who weren't financial experts - but who might be able to relate to their circumstances. Revealing women value community-based financial guidance based on common experiences, not financial expertise.
Money Management presented as a challenge thematically. The reason was interesting. It wasn't because women couldn't manage the responsibility, it was because they were earning less than men but contributing equal amounts. Revealing households lack a modern standard for financial contribution.
But, there was more. Women - both partnered and single - were spending more on unpaid work than men. This duty of care had immediate and long-term financial impacts. It limited employment opportunities because women needed flexible working hours which impacted their career trajectory and overall lifetime earnings. Revealing unpaid work financially impacts women long-term disproportionately.
It was time to listen to some real people. I created a landing page www.morethanpink.co.uk and Instagram Account @MoreThanPink_UK to aid in recruiting subject matter experts and female-identifying interview participants.
I set out to unpack money management with women across all age groups but with a particular interest in women aged 35-50. Two contrasting behaviours quickly emerged. Single, married and widowed women were comfortable, confident and proud to be managing the day-to-day finances of their respective households. However, when the discussion turned to financial planning for the future there was immediate discomfort. I had identified the first area of opportunity.
OPPORTUNITY AREA #1: FINANCIAL PLANNING
There is no historical precedent for women to have experience in financial planning. This is a new societal norm and a new expectation. When we consider that women live an average of 8 years longer than men, they need to have funds saved to support themselves for nearly a decade longer; making it even more important for women to have sound long-term financial plans, given the cumulative impact of the gender pay gap and the unpaid work gap.
I wanted to dig deeper. I focussed on one repeating behavioural characteristic - the aversion to financial planning. When I mapped out all the reasons, and coupled it with the fact that many women declined interviews - stating they were 'bad at money.' It hit me.
Shame. They were all ashamed of something.
I went back to the research to explore whether there was a behavioural relationship. I learned about shame, financial shame and shame spirals. It turns out that shame induces financial aversion which increases the probability of counterproductive financial decision making. With every 1-point increase in financial shame, there is a 0.49% increase in financial aversion.* I then explored shame from a gendered perspective and confirmed that men and women experience and respond to shame differently.
* Joe J. Gladstone, Jon M. Jachimowicz, Adam Eric Greenberg, Adam D. Galinsky Financial shame spirals: How shame intensifies financial hardship
OPPORTUNITY AREA #2: FINANCIAL SHAME
I aggregated these findings and designed a financial shame cycle which can be referenced in the illustration below. Systemic disadvantages lead to financial shame. which are compounded over time and lead to financial hardship resulting in financial aversion perpetuating complete financial disengagement. Illustrating this is a revolving cycle begging to be broken. And not from a social change perspective, but rather, from a gender empowerment perspective.
I reached back out to my interview panel to test my theory. Listen to what Jane had to say, in the video below.
