The Investment Gender Gap - and Why Women Were Built to Win

A reminder that women were always meant to be investors; they were simply never invited into the room.

When I started Hot Money Mom, it wasn’t because women needed help “controlling their spending” or learning how to stretch a dollar. It was because almost every woman I knew was already managing the day-to-day finances of her home, making thousands of invisible decisions, and still feeling unsure about the one part of money that actually builds wealth: investing for the long run.

That insecurity never came from lack of ability; it came from lack of permission.

For generations, the narrative pushed toward women has been painfully consistent: save harder, penny pinch, clip coupons, sell baby clothes on Marketplace, shave $2 dollars off the grocery bill. Meanwhile, men grew up in conversations about building money, investing money, and debating on Reddit whether Tesla stock will plummet or rocket like it is a competitive sport.

Women were taught to be careful with money, and men were taught to be confident with it. You can see it reflected everywhere, especially on social media: the advice to women is almost always about cutting back, while the advice to men is about leveling up to get that Ferrari by next Friday.

But here is the truth the financial world conveniently forgets:

Women already control most of the real money in a household.

Women are already the CFO at home: TechCrunch found that women make roughly 85% of consumer spending decisions. Eighty five. That includes groceries, clothing, childcare, home expenses, birthdays, repairs, medical appointments, school supplies, subscriptions, travel, and every hidden cost of raising a family. Women also tend to be better at budgeting. Women have the instinct to save, but not always to invest.

Women also tend to be stronger budgeters. We know how to stretch a dollar.

But here is the plot twist: women save like pros, but do not always invest. And that is where the wealth gap widens (among other reasons, such as the gender pay gap), because compounding only works on money that is actually invested. A savings account is not going to retire us.

Then comes the data punch: a massive BlackRock survey in 2016 — right in the middle of the “girlboss” era — revealed something heartbreaking: only 26% of women felt knowledgeable about investing compared to 43% of men. And only 37% of women felt comfortable making investment decisions, compared to 51% of men.

Fast forward to more recent numbers: Fidelity reported that 71% of men assessing themselves as having a high level of investment knowledge, compared to 54% of women.

This isn’t because women don’t understand money: it’s because no one ever taught us the part of money that creates wealth.

And here is what most women don’t realize: when women do invest, they often outperform men.

Fidelity reports that 56% of millennial women say fear is the reason they hold back from investing.

Fidelity reported that female investors tend to earn slightly higher returns, up to 1%. I know what you are thinking: one percent may sounds small, but this difference can be substantial over time - like hundreds of thousands over a lifetime.   RBC’s research echoed this, showing that women are more likely to choose balanced portfolios, avoid emotional trading, stay diversified, and maintain a steady long term mindset. In other words, women invest in a way that quietly but consistently works.

So if women handle most of the spending and are naturally strong investors, why does the gap remain?

We could write an entire historical and sociological analysis unpacking the power structures behind all of this, from the legacy of patriarchal financial systems to the cultural norms that kept women at the margins of money decisions. (Random tidbit: your money mom has an undergrad in anthropology, so I could get very nerdy on this.)

But we know the truth: for generations, our grandmothers were not even allowed to open a bank account without a husband signing off, and our mothers were told not to talk about money a the risk of being impolite. We grew up inheriting silence instead of guidance, and shame instead of confidence. And if you come from any minority group, those barriers have been even higher.

But despite all of that, women today are earning more, running businesses, becoming primary earners, stepping into leadership, and making decisions that shape the lives of their families and the futures of their children.

Women were always meant to be investors; they simply were never invited into the room.

That is why I created Hot Money Mom.

Not to tell you to stop buying coffee or to compete in the coupon Olympics, but to give you the clarity, confidence, and support that make investing feel understandable and doable on a busy mom schedule.

Women already run the economy.

It is time we start investing like it and claiming the wealth that should have been ours all along.