Women and Wealth: this year’s International Women’s Day theme is “Choose to Challenge”

As women, we’ve come a long way since International Women’s Day was established in 1911 to “celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.”

Examples? Since Educators is in the financial field, I’ll focus on the economic. From 1976 to 2016, the average income for Canadian women increased from $16,100 to $35,300. Gender disparity in income was also reduced by half, from $32,000 to $16,100. These changes reflected the increased percentage of women in the workplace – from 21.6% in the 1950’s to 82% in 2015¹. And by 2026, Canadian women will influence at least $3 trillion of personal wealth².

And yet, according to the statistics below, we still have a long way to go:

• The pay gap between male and female fulltime workers in 2018 was 13.3³
• Women are over-represented in lower-paying occupations
• Myths about women and money persist – such as “Women spend more and save less”; “Women are averse to investment risk”, and many more

It’s time for women, and financial institutions working with women, to challenge these statistics. Why? Not only are women in Canada managing significant wealth and cash flow, but women have unique financial issues to deal with. Women live longer than men – one of the reasons 90% of women will be in the role of sole financial decision maker at sometime in their life. Women are also more likely to have interrupted careers, as a result of family responsibilities.

It’s time to increase financial equality for women through building empowerment and financial literacy.

At Educators Financial Group, we’re committed to improving our client’s financial literacy through our ever-increasing online library of articles and tools, The Learning Centre. This valuable resource features information on everything from budgeting strategies to portfolio building to managing retirement income (which is even more important to women than men, since their life expectancy is longer). We feature women-specific articles and webinars such as the popular, “Independent Women”, which addresses such subjects as net worth and cash flow, debt management, investing methods, and understanding your pension.

What will our Financial Specialists choose to challenge to help forge an inclusive world?

For #InternationalWomensDay, we asked our own Caitlin Buchko, what she will #ChooseToChallenge. She answered, “I choose to challenge gender biases and celebrate women’s achievements by helping them build their financial future while they build their career.” #IWD2021 pic.twitter.com/WQlzoxUE2I

— Educators Financial Group (@EducatorsFG) March 8, 2021

Do you feel empowered to reach your goals?

Challenge yourself by taking control of your finances. Educators Financial Group can help.

Have one of our financial specialists reach out to you.

Karen Hubbard

In addition to being an educational advocate, Karen brings to the team over 20 years of financial specialist experience – spending a good part of that time as an advisor with the Private Wealth Management Division of a major financial institution. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from McMaster University and has her Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation. When describing what she enjoys most about working at Educators Financial Group, Karen says, “it’s definitely sitting down with clients – helping them to employ wealth-building strategies and build effective financial plans for life events.”

1 Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, March 8, 2017
2 0TDAM and Investor Economics: Time, Treasure, Talent: Canadian Women and Philanthropy (Addendum), May 2016.
3 https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-004-m/75-004-m2019004-eng.htm