Humberto Conference Recap : Winning over women in financial services
Throughout history women have faced many adversaries dating back to the beginning of civilization. They were viewed as less than equal to their male counterparts. We as a nation have made much needed strides in improving women’s rights. To change the paradigm of society in this country and many places around the world on how they view and treat women in society. Long gone are the days of the only thing they are good at is being in the kitchen and being a housewife and watch over the kids while the men are the breadwinners.
From the women’s suffrage movement, practice law, get higher education and earning the right to vote to today that stereotype of what women should be is gone. Women are strong, resilient and determined against all odds. More and more are highly educated getting degrees in many different fields that were viewed as “only for men” and even to some degree is still viewed that way. STEM is one example. In a male dominated field more and more women are showing to be just as capable as the male counterparts. Paving the way in creating new discoveries and technologies to better humanity.
Even though we have made these significant changes that only 40-50 years ago was unheard of. There are still prejudices and stereotypes plaguing the fair treatment and fundamental rights of women. In this social political climate is very important to stand up for women’s rights that are now being challenged again in this age of progressiveness. The gender pay gap is a very glaring problem and unfortunately common in the work place. On average women make $0.79 for every dollar a man makes in 2019 even though both are equally as qualified to do the job. Not only that, but many brands do not do enough to market and cater to women as they should. There is a huge untapped market. Women are the financial decision makers in a household. This is what winning over women conference was about. More specifically in the financial services.
The conference began with an introduction to the market and the huge potential that women have in
spending power and in society. The introduction speaker mentioned a specific statistic that really
resonated with me in just how much influence women have in society. “A clear commercial opportunity exists with the 126 million adult females in the U.S.1 who control 51%, of personal wealth and 80% of consumer spending.” Reflecting on this it is very true from anecdotal experiences that it rings true.
The panelist begin the discussion with the current landscape. One of the panelist Kerry Sette, VP head of consumers of Voya Financials said “With more women as top earners in the household, financial services companies are finally realizing that they better not just pay attention; they better also start to figure out how to build meaningful relationships with women” This is speaking to the previous statement made by speaker in the beginning of the conference. For banks it is important to speak and create that relationship with women. Women in this age are business people and entrepreneurs that is worth investing in them.
As the panel continued to talk. They showed how the women approach finances into three categories.
Erika Pearson, EVP of Customer Experience Kantar broke down theses categories. The first is Everyday Banking and insurance. Like saving and checking accounts. “When it comes to their no-risk checking and savings accounts, women are loyal customers” This is a very interesting statement because of the previous statistics in making important connections with women as brands. If brands show loyalty to their consumers. The consumers will show it back and continue doing business with the brand and be advocates for it. The second one was Longer term borrowing, like mortgages and the final one was Investments and Retirement planning.
As the conference concluded. The last part of Investments and retirement planning they talked about a qualitative focus group where they got firsthand accounts and quotes of how some of the women feel when they do business with their banks. They talk about how women feel it is a partnership between the bank and them. Having trust and understanding is highly important. A quote that really stood out was of a negative experience “where they just address my spouse and don’t address me, when it was more than 75 percent my money that I brought into this and I’m the one who’s the investor and my husband didn’t know so much about it. Don’t act like I’m the little lady; don’t talk to the little lady in the corner; you know, she just smiles and nods.” This is really concerning because of the stereotype of the housewife that does not know anything but cleaning and cooking. This misconception is proven wrong just by the statistics that women are the financial decision makers.
Overall, I learned a lot about how powerful and just how much influence women have in todays society. I was also surprised how many men in important positions like CEO’s CFO’s and board members attended this conference. It shows the commitment and willingness to change society and how brands look at women. This is a start, but there is still a lot of work to be done. The change has to come from the top down. As people in power must lead by example.
From the women’s suffrage movement, practice law, get higher education and earning the right to vote to today that stereotype of what women should be is gone. Women are strong, resilient and determined against all odds. More and more are highly educated getting degrees in many different fields that were viewed as “only for men” and even to some degree is still viewed that way. STEM is one example. In a male dominated field more and more women are showing to be just as capable as the male counterparts. Paving the way in creating new discoveries and technologies to better humanity.
Even though we have made these significant changes that only 40-50 years ago was unheard of. There are still prejudices and stereotypes plaguing the fair treatment and fundamental rights of women. In this social political climate is very important to stand up for women’s rights that are now being challenged again in this age of progressiveness. The gender pay gap is a very glaring problem and unfortunately common in the work place. On average women make $0.79 for every dollar a man makes in 2019 even though both are equally as qualified to do the job. Not only that, but many brands do not do enough to market and cater to women as they should. There is a huge untapped market. Women are the financial decision makers in a household. This is what winning over women conference was about. More specifically in the financial services.
The conference began with an introduction to the market and the huge potential that women have in
spending power and in society. The introduction speaker mentioned a specific statistic that really
resonated with me in just how much influence women have in society. “A clear commercial opportunity exists with the 126 million adult females in the U.S.1 who control 51%, of personal wealth and 80% of consumer spending.” Reflecting on this it is very true from anecdotal experiences that it rings true.
The panelist begin the discussion with the current landscape. One of the panelist Kerry Sette, VP head of consumers of Voya Financials said “With more women as top earners in the household, financial services companies are finally realizing that they better not just pay attention; they better also start to figure out how to build meaningful relationships with women” This is speaking to the previous statement made by speaker in the beginning of the conference. For banks it is important to speak and create that relationship with women. Women in this age are business people and entrepreneurs that is worth investing in them.
As the panel continued to talk. They showed how the women approach finances into three categories.
Erika Pearson, EVP of Customer Experience Kantar broke down theses categories. The first is Everyday Banking and insurance. Like saving and checking accounts. “When it comes to their no-risk checking and savings accounts, women are loyal customers” This is a very interesting statement because of the previous statistics in making important connections with women as brands. If brands show loyalty to their consumers. The consumers will show it back and continue doing business with the brand and be advocates for it. The second one was Longer term borrowing, like mortgages and the final one was Investments and Retirement planning.
Overall, I learned a lot about how powerful and just how much influence women have in todays society. I was also surprised how many men in important positions like CEO’s CFO’s and board members attended this conference. It shows the commitment and willingness to change society and how brands look at women. This is a start, but there is still a lot of work to be done. The change has to come from the top down. As people in power must lead by example.
