The Barbie and Matilda effect – Is it here to stay?
This quarter saw big wins in gender financial equality. As at 30th June 2023, Australia's gender pay gap reached a historic low of 13 percent, marking a decrease from 13.3 percent at the beginning of the year. This was driven by an increase in average weekly wages for women by 2 per cent compared with a 1.6 per cent increase for men. More positively, the number of women appointed to ASX200 directorships increased to 36.4% up from 36% in March, whilst the timeframe to gender equality fell to 5.7 years, down from 5.8 years in the March quarter.
Figure 1: Changes in years to financial gender equality, Financy Women’s Index, March 2023
Whilst the above conveys positive sentiments regarding the trajectory of gender financial equality, it must be acknowledged however that progress appears to have declined in employment where the growth rate in monthly hours worked by men was 1.5% during the June quarter versus only 0.7% for women.
Many opine that the positive trajectory followed by the Financy Women’s Index (FWX) - a measurement of economic progress of Australian women, could be further improved by the Barbie and Matildas effect as reflected by the Founder of Financy, Bianca Hartge-Hazelman. A positive cultural sentiment appears to have been triggered particularly in the entertainment industry with the Barbie movie raising awareness around gender equality, and the Matildas proving that womens’ sports generates just as much (and sometimes more!) popularity than men’s sports.
Hartge-Hazelman recalls that the positive effects felt at present were similar to that of the effect felt following the 2017/2018 #MeToo and Times Up movements, the momentum of which was disrupted by the COVID19 pandemic. This warrants the question of whether the ‘Barbie and Matildas” effect is here to stay and will be further supported by policy and employers prioritising gender equality.
The Global Impact Initiative’s (GII) Gender Equality fund is the world’s first, actively managed impact fund for Women and Girls. Gender equality is long overdue, and this investment solution enables investors to utilise investment capital to deliver empowerment for women in the workforce and better outcomes for girls' health, education, nutrition and social and economic empowerment. The fund has partnered with Robeco, Grameen Australia, Malala Fund, UN Women Australia, UNICEF Australia and World Vision to accelerate social impact for women and girls.
This innovative, impactful fund is available as a Dublin-based UCITs and the minimum investment is only $5,000. Please contact us via our website for more information should you be interested in investing in gender equality and helping to close the gender gap!
References