The landscape of small business and wealth management is shifting, with women playing increasingly influential roles in small business and also in high-net-worth families. One in three small businesses is run by women now and new female millionaires are currently outnumbering new male millionaires. Women are more involved in the workforce and in high paid jobs than ever before and in the wealth transfer from baby boomers, women are set to take charge of $3.2 trillion over the next decade. But some data suggests that 48% of women in Australia are financially illiterate and a recent report by JB Were on high-net-worth women reports that women still find it hard to be taken seriously when applying for loans and face obstacles in engaging financial service providers.
Women have traditionally been primary care givers when children come along, often have put their careers on hold or more likely to drop to part-time work, earn less than their male counterparts and thus have less superannuation available at retirement. Financial literacy is also an issue in Australia (36%) which outnumbers other countries such as Germany, UK, and Norway in adult financial illiteracy. Financial literacy is linked to financial outcomes and in Australia the gender gap in this area is even worse when compared to other countries such as Italy, Germany, USA, Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, and China. In Australia, low literacy is almost double for women (34%) what it is for men (16%). But just basic knowledge is enough to make a big difference. When my children reached adulthood, one of them asked why they weren’t taught at school things like – you need to lodge a tax return each year and how to do this, banking basics, investing basics, budgeting, credit cards and so on. I guess we expect to learn that as we embrace adulthood, but often we learn the hard way or not at all.
If empowerment encompasses financial education, access to resources, and opportunities for growth and leadership, then women being able to step into asking for what they need and want is crucial. Systems theory explores the area of being clear about who you are and what you stand for. Growing your own ‘self’ is a key part of growing into an emotional adult and developing your emotional maturity.
My own experience has been that I put others first for so long, that it can be hard to know what I want and how to do more of what I want. My default was making sure everyone else was okay first. I had to practice looking after myself better and I must have done okay, as one of my adult children once told me that I had enough practice. Taking responsibility for myself has been a growth area, one that I wasn’t that comfortable with, but has been incredibly helpful practicing this. When we travel on a plane, we are told to put the oxygen mask on ourselves first before we do this for others, even though it goes against our instincts. This is a great metaphor for growing more ‘self’.
References:
- JB Were Report, The Growth of Women and Wealth (2024) https://www.jbwere.com.au/content/dam/jbwere/documents/campaigns/JBWere-Growth-of-Women-and-Wealth.pdf
- World Economic Forum (2023) https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/08/3-reasons-the-retirement-crisis-is-a-women-s-crisis-and-3-reasons-it-isnt/
- The Golden Times, (2024) Australia is less financially literate then its peers, with a bigger gender gap https://www.thegoldentimes.com.au/australia-is-less-financially-literate-than-its-peers-with-a-bigger-gender-gap/#:~:text=Allianz%20found%20Australia%20had%20the,49%20per%20cent%20of%20men.
- Brown, J., 2017. Growing yourself up: How to bring your best to all of life’s relationships. Exisle Publishing.
