21: Women and Finance: Myths about Women and Money

Women aren't as good at money as men. Women aren't good at math. Women are worse than men at investing. Women spend too much impulsively. Women who make a lot of money won't be desirable. Ouf. Have you ever heard these terrible myths about women and money?

Ah, women and finance. So many myths are out there about women and money. In this episode of Mind Money Balance, I’m breaking down some of the top five myths I’ve heard about women and money.

1. Women aren't as good at money as men. Studies show in married couples, women are more concerned with getting their money "right," and are more likely to ask for professional help, indicating that women do care about money and want to be good stewards of their money.

2. Women aren't good at math. Exactly 0 studies show that there is a difference in mathematical aptitude between men and women. There are studies that point to girls having lower confidence and higher anxiety when it comes to math.

3. Women are bad at investing. False! Women actually perform 1.2% better than men on average, which is likely due to less of them participating in “active stock trading” than men.

4. Women are impulsive spenders. On average, men spend $220 per transaction compared to $151 per transaction for women. So it’s not that men shop more than women—it’s that they spend more per transaction (KPMG 2017)

5. Women who make too much money won't be desirable. This is a *sort of* truth. 39% of married heterosexual couples in the US have breadwinning women, so clearly, people are still getting married who make more. The number of people who think that marriage is better when the man earns more than the woman is dropping—while 40 percent of people thought that was true in 1997, only 28 percent of people agree with it in 2019. So there’s some progress, though we still have a ways to go.

What myths about women and money have you heard?