March 8 is International Women’s day that celebrates the achievements of women and pushes for equal rights progress.The first recorded celebration was in 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland when over a million people rallied to support women’s rights. But the struggle is not over, there are still a lot of misconceptions to fight and they are not limited to the women’s places in society, writes eToro analyst for Romania, Bogdan Maioreanu.
According to the last census, in Romania, women are 51.5% of the total population. However, when it comes to investments, Romania has the lowest number of female investors, reveals eToro Retail Investor Beat survey.
According to the poll only 33% of Romanian investors are women and this figure remained almost constant over the past few years. By comparison, Germans have 40%, Poles have 42%, Czechs 37% and Americans 51% women investors.
The Americans are actually the only ones closer to the actual demographic in the whole survey. And this is happening in the context of the easiest in history access to investment in local and international stocks due to the evolution of online investments platforms.
There is progress though – at the global level the number of women investors is growing faster than the men. In the past two years, 31% of the women investors started investing versus only 20% of men. This trend is happening in Romania too, but the growth is slower, the difference being only 2% in favor of women. But this is good news.
The largest percentage of the Romanian investors are women between 18 and 34 years old (35%), followed by the ones aged 35 to 44 (27%) and the ones over 55 (24%). The lowest category (14%) are females that were born between 1969 and 1978, now between 45 and 54 years old. This is an encouraging find showing that younger generations are more open to start on this path.
It is also consistent with a study in the US showing that investing is particularly popular with younger women: 71% of the women of generation Z (born between 1997-2012) are investing, 63% of millennials (b. 1981-1996), 55% of generation X (b. 1965-1981) and 57% of the Baby boomers (b. 1946-1964).
In the end, the question is how to have more women investors? Public awareness and education about investing seems to be the key. Female investors also give confidence to their peers, showing that that investing is a process that can be taught. Starting to invest means that women are taking charge of their finances and also of their future. And this is truly empowering! Happy Woman Day ladies!
