5 Powerful Ways to Use Your Purse to Help Women and Girls
Geri Stengel Contributor
I write about the success factors of women entrepreneurs.
Women have a powerful tool for improving the lives of girls and women -- money. Finance can be used to advance change around issues as diverse as women on corporate boards, sex trafficking, bias in the media, the wage gap, equitable health access and the gap in funding women-led companies, according to The State of the Field of Gender Lens Investing: A Road Map for the Field, a report by Criterion Institute. Criterion is a think tank focused on reinventing the economy.
Photo credit: Tax Credits, Money Girl
"Gender is the most powerful determinant of how we see the world and everything in it," writes fellow Forbes contributor Bridget Brennan, an expert on marketing to women. "It's more significant than age, income, ethnicity, or geography." Here are five ways women can use their purses to not only bring women's and girls' issues front and center, but also change the way things are done.
1. Purchasing power
Women account for 85% of all consumer purchases in United States, according to She-economy. Women can use their purchasing power to buy products from companies that treat the women who work for them equitably. Brands take note: Products and services are already out that make it easy for women to measure workplace equity and allow them to take action.
One tool is BUY UP Index, which rates parent companies of consumers' favorite brands on gender diversity in the boardroom and C-Suite, workforce practices (such as maternity leave or flextime/telecommuting and leadership programs), philanthropy and corporate social responsibility, and advertising and marketing that portrays inclusiveness. The app let's consumers check corporate brand ratings when shopping. Top companies can reach out through the app and send special promotional offerings. Consumers can easily complain to — or stop buying from — poorly rated companies.
Another example is Fairygodboss, which just launched Maternity Leave Resource Center, a searchable database of the leave policies of approximately 550 companies.
2. Portfolio power
Women have decision-making power over $11.2 trillion or 39% of all investable assets in the U.S., according to Harness the Power of the Purse: Winning Women Investors, by Andrea Turner Moffitt. That's a whole lot of money that women can use to make an impact.
An overwhelming percentage of women — 90% — want to make a positive impact on society, the report notes. Research by U.S. Trust confirms this.
"Gender lens investing is a field on the rise," writes Joy Anderson and Katherine Miles in The State of the Field of Gender Lens Investing. It's a form of impact investing that addresses the inequities women and girls face by allowing investors to make both money and a social impact.
Women Investing in Women Initiative (WIN-WIN), a project of the Calvert Foundation, raised $20 million to lend to organizations around the globe that empower women and girls. It was the first broadly available impact investment with a gender lens and, since its launch, stimulated the creation of other women focused investments. Based on its initial success, it committed to raising an additional $20 million. A variety of funds that invest in companies highly rated in terms of advancing women have followed, including Pax Ellevate Global Women's Index Fund.
Angels are closing the gender gap for female founders raising capital. More than one in four angel-backed companies are women-led in 2014, a dramatic jump of 234% in 10 years. Even the venture capital industry, which is dominated by white men, is taking steps to become women friendly. While some angels and VCs invest with a gender lens, others just want a great return on their investment.
Expect more ways to invest in women-led companies in the new year. Some of these new investment vehicles will be made possible by the rules and regulations resulting from the JOBS Act, including Title III, which is expected to be announced later this month.
3. Philanthropic power
Progress in other areas is slower. Only 7% of philanthropic giving in the United States is allocated to the issues of women and girls, according to The State of the Field of Gender Lens Investing. Despite greater interest in women and girls, there has been little impact on a large majority of women's organizations around the world, according to the Association for Women's Rights in Development.
Approximately 30% of girls in NYC live below the poverty line, according to Blueprint for Investing in Girls and Young Women, research by the New York Women's Foundation. These conditions leave them particularly vulnerable to violence, poor health, and lower educational outcomes. Current services are inadequate. To make a dent in the universe, philanthropists could start by focusing on girls.
4. Political power
More women vote than men, but women lag way behind men in political contributions, according to an analysis of data from Crowdpac, done by Upshot and reported in The New York Times. Only about 30% of big campaign donors are women and the estimated gap in overall fundraising is even larger, because the average contribution from a man is much larger than the average for a woman. Women give more to liberals and to other women.
5. Preneur power
Social enterprises aimed at serving the needs of the developing world that integrate gender throughout their business model prosper as a result of engaging both women and men in the entire enterprise value chain, according to Women and Social Enterprises: How Gender Integration Can Boost Entrepreneurial Solutions to Poverty a research report by Acumen and the International Center for Research on Women. Adoption and use levels of products and services increase when women are included in the design, production, and marketing and sales. It's not just the companies that benefit, the lives of women are improved with products such as affordable water and sanitation solutions. I'll add that even companies that aren't social enterprises will benefit.
Imagine what the world would look like if women used their purses to influence a company's decision to provide maternity leaves, fund a company that developed a better breast pump, educate girls in the developing world or back competent female candidates. I can imagine that world. It looks pretty good.
Geri Stengel
I am president of Ventureneer, a digital media and market research company that helps corporations reach small businesses through thought leadership. My book, Forget the...