In its new Women’s Financial Health Index, Ellevest, an investment platform and financial literacy program for women, found that women have been hurt more by inflation than men. In an interview with Yahoo Finance Live, Ellevest Founder and Chief Executive Officer Sallie Krawcheck pointed to the gender pay gap as a strong contributor to the fact that inflation has been “particularly brutal” for women. Women’s wealth, Krawcheck said, is only “$0.32 to a white man’s dollar—for women of color, it’s pennies.”
“Inflation hurts everybody, but hurts women more,” she said. “Women were hit by that, which hurts the pocketbook immediately.”
The index also measured women’s employment rate, student debt, paid family leave, corporate leadership and venture capital funding for women, finding that inflation has led to the lowest consumer confidence level in five years.
“When you look at its performance over the past five years, women’s financial health took a big hit during the pandemic because they lost jobs at a disproportionate rate [and it] improved coming out of the pandemic as they were returning to the workforce, but this year has been tough,” Krawcheck said.
Only 14% of women reported feeling financially prepared for a recession, and two-thirds of women have reduced their spending because of inflation. Still, 75% of women are continuing to invest in their retirement portfolios, compared to 66% of men.