Womenomics
Jackie VanderBrug, an investment strategist at U.S. Trust, highlights why women are growing into an economic superpower; and how the gender gap, while still in place, is shrinking. At the same time, she notes, women, especially those in emerging markets, stand to benefit from gender-focused investments.
Hi, I’m Jackie VanderBrug, investment strategist at U.S. Trust.
If I asked you to name a rising economic superpower controlling about one-third of global wealth, chances are you’d think in terms of countries. But the answer is women.1
In the United States, half of all private wealth will be in the hands of women by 2020.2 Worldwide, women are currently responsible for nearly $15 trillion of consumer spending every year.3
There’s no doubt about it: We have entered an age of womenomics.
Women represent 40% of the global workforce today.4 Their economic power is growing for several reasons.
For starters, we know that education is critical for success in the job market and earning a good income—and in many parts of the world, women students now outnumber men in both secondary schools and in universities.5
Also, women in many countries are having fewer children, which gives them more time to pursue careers. And, the growing role of technology in the workplace has leveled the playing field, favoring brains over physical strength.
All of this leads to more economic opportunity for women—the very essence of womenomics. And while women in the U.S. still earn just 82 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts,6 that figure has risen, from 62 cents in 1979.7 In other words, the gender gap still exists, but it’s closing.
Amid these and other momentous changes, the involvement of women—as consumers, workers and creators of wealth— is fundamentally reshaping investment markets.
There are many ways for investors to participate in and foster the rise of women. They represent an opportunity to support an emerging economic superpower, deploying your investment dollars in ways that have an impact in generating financial and social returns.
For more on womenomics, ask your advisor about investment approaches that support a more equitable world, such as the U.S. Trust Women and Girls Equality Strategy. Thank you.
FOOTNOTES
1 Leveling the Playing Field: Upgrading the Wealth Management Experience for Women, Boston Consulting Group, 2010. (Latest available data.)
2 The Female Economy, Harvard Business Review, 2009. (Latest available data.)
3 U.S. Women Control the Purse Strings, Nielson, 2013.
4 What’s Going On? 101 Things Every Investor Should Know About the Global Economy , Joseph Quinlan, 2014.
5 Ibid.
6 Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2013, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014.
7 Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2012 , U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013.
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