Bridging the female consumer engagement gap

In collaboration with The Fawcett Society and leading global consultancy Mercer, we have worked with industry stakeholders to promote greater development of financial products that will close the gap between male and female engagement with personal finance matters.

The challenge

There is significant evidence that women underinvest in pensions and financial products by making too low contributions, taking too little risk with their investments and under-insuring themselves, relative to men.

In other words, there is a gender financial security gap. That gap means that the inequalities women experience during their working years are perpetuated and exacerbated in later life, creating a significant social justice issue.

The solution

We worked with Mercer and The Fawcett Society to better-understand these issues, and to suggest ways of overcoming these challenges. 

Our joint report advocated that businesses and policy makers needed to:

• strive to better understand female consumers and therefore develop more
• relevant products;
• help build women’s financial capability through earlier engagement;
• change the perception of finance as an area of male expertise;
• change the language used in connection with financial products to become more gender neutral;
• reframe risk, to support the notion that ‘under-investing’ is more risky than
• making investments.

We engaged with industry, bringing the issue to life with ‘The Money Game’ app we developed with Mercer. This demonstrates how the financial considerations and outlook of women differ. 

We also engaged with policymakers and held workshops with clients to break down some of the barriers to the development of products, responding to the clear market need.

The result

The response and feedback from clients has been outstanding. The issues raised in our report were also highlighted in the media, including through broadcast coverage on the BBC and broadsheet press coverage which further-promoted the existence of the 'gap'.

We are now collaborating with clients to broaden the reach and impact of their products, putting us at the apex of a new market for female-friendly personal finance solutions.