7 Shocking Stats About the Gender Investing Gap

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as of March 23, 2024, the world's top 15 wealthiest people are men. But even aside from the rarified realm of the richest people on Earth, in everyday financial life, women are less likely to be investors. Women tend to have lower incomes and less wealth than men.

The gender pay gap is an unfortunate part of everyday life for half the population; as of 2020, women in the U.S. were earning about $0.83 for every dollar earned by men. But along with the gender pay gap, women face certain disadvantages in their lives as investors who are trying to save for retirement and build wealth for the future. The gender pay gap and other inequalities in the American workplace, and how Americans save and invest, can drive an even bigger long-term gender wealth gap for women.

Let's look at a few high-level stats on the gender investing gap, and how women today (and the organizations that employ women) can make progress on helping women (and our world) get wealthier for the future.

1. Gender wealth gap: Women have 32% of men's wealth

Research data cited by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) found that women have about 32% of the wealth that men have. When women are underpaid compared to men, they are naturally going to have a harder time saving money and building wealth for the future. The gender pay gap has led to a larger gender wealth gap.

2. Gender wealth gap by race and ethnicity: Single moms have lower wealth

The gender wealth gap is even more severe if you look at a breakdown of stats for households headed by white women and women of color. Research cited by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis found that:

• Families headed by women have $0.55 of median wealth for every dollar of wealth held by white male-headed households.
• Families headed by Hispanic women had $0.10 of wealth for every dollar of wealth for white male-headed households
• Families headed by Black women had $0.05 of wealth for every dollar of wealth for white male-headed households

Some communities within the U.S. have faced historic discrimination, barriers, and exclusion from higher education, homeownership, and high-paying careers. When you add the potential costs of raising children and the burdens of being discriminated against based on gender, it's easy to see why many women, especially single mothers of color, are less likely to build significant amounts of wealth -- no matter how good they are at budgeting.

3. Single moms are more likely to be unbanked than to be CEOs

About 1 in 10 (10.4%) of Fortune 500 CEOs are women; 15.9% of single mothers are unbanked.

This one stat tells us a lot about how women are underrepresented in the C-suite and all too likely to be living in financial precariousness. Unfortunately, single mothers today are much more likely to be unbanked -- existing outside of the protections of the banking system and vulnerable to high fees and predatory loans -- than to be high-paid CEOs.

4. Women have 70% of the retirement income that men have

All those years of working for lower wages due to the gender pay gap also add up to women having less money saved for retirement, less money paid into Social Security, and a lower standard of living in retirement. Data from the American Association of University Women (AAUW) found several big gender retirement savings gaps:

• Women receive about $0.70 for every dollar of retirement income that men receive
• Women get about 80% of what men collect from Social Security benefits
• Women get about 76% of men's pension income

If the gender pay gap is $0.83 per dollar, the retirement income gap is even worse at about $0.70 for women compared to every dollar a man gets in retirement.

5. Women's retirement savings accounts are 44% lower than men's

A Vanguard survey in 2021 found that the typical woman's retirement account balance was $31,291, which was 44% lower than men's median balance of $45,106. The gender pay gap is not the only culprit here; women are also less likely to have jobs that qualify for a 401(k) plan or other non-Social Security retirement account. For example, U.S. Department of Labor statistics show that women are more likely to have part-time jobs that don't have employer-based retirement plans.

6. More women are investing in stocks

According to a study from Fidelity, as of 2023, 60% of women were investing in the stock market. This is up from historic averages of only 40% of women. More women buying stocks is good news for women's future retirement incomes.

7. Women get better investment results than men do

In a world where so many Wall Street CEOs and personal finance gurus are men, you might be (pleasantly) surprised to learn that women are often better investors than men are. Studies show that women get 0.4% to 1% higher average annual investment returns than men do. This could be because women tend to be more risk-conscious than men. Women are less likely to invest too aggressively, overreact to short-term downturns in the stock market, or chase the latest hot investment trends.

Bottom line

There is good news about the gender investing gap: Women are making it better. In spite of historic inequalities and disadvantages, many women are working, saving, and investing in ways that can close the gap. When more women can buy stocks, build wealth, and invest for the future, that ultimately makes the economy better for everyone.