Mary Ellen Iskenderian

Making Finance Work for Women — A Business Case

Nearly one billion women have been completely excluded from the formal financial system. Without even a bank account in their own names, they lack the basic services most of us take for granted—secure ways to save money, pay bills, and get credit. Financial exclusion leaves them economic outsiders, unable to benefit from, or contribute to, economic growth. 

Addressing a market with a revenue potential of $700 bn would be transformative to the financial services industry; equally powerful, is the transformative effect of access to finance on the women themselves – their material circumstances, their resilience as well as their sense of security and self-esteem. I tell the stories of transformation, weaving together the strands of personal change, business opportunities and economic growth, which is estimated to equate to $13 trillion to the global GDP in 2030.  

Making Finance Work for Women in the US

Over half of Americans (57%) report that they are financially struggling because of some combination of debt, irregular income, and sporadic savings. Since all three of these factors are decidedly worse for women in the U.S., they share many of the same elements of financial precariousness as women in the developing world. Likewise, there is a compelling business opportunity for financial services providers that address women’s needs, recognizing them as previously underserved – and lucrative – clients.

Even while 97% of women in the US are formally “banked,” the gender wage gap drives significant financial inequality throughout women’s lives. Recent progress in closing the wage gap obscures the impact of another, less-frequently-reported structural inequality: the wealth gap. Other drivers of wealth accumulation such as business ownership present a notoriously uneven playing field, with women entrepreneurs receiving only 3% of venture capital funding.

As women’s careers progress, breaks in employment history to take on the unpaid care of children or elderly relatives (a pattern that was exacerbated throughout the COVID-19 pandemic), compounded by a lifetime of lower salaries, significantly lower women’s Social Security benefits and retirement savings. Once again, women face the cruel financial conundrum of living longer on lower retirement savings. 

Women as Agents of Change in Adapting and Responding to Global Crises

Climate change and geopolitical crises disproportionately affect low-income women and lead to the loss of livelihoods due for example to floods, droughts, and displacement. In many parts of the world, low-income women are on the “frontlines” of climate change as the traditional managers of water sources, food production, and livestock for the family – responsibilities dependent on environmental resources and susceptible to climate change. Further, 80% of those displaced by climate-related disasters are women and girls. However, women not only bear the burden of social and economic consequences of climate change but also bring unique knowledge and experience that is critical to the development and implementation of climate and adaptation solutions.