Investment Trends: Women are Closing Investing Gap in Australia

With International Women’s Day just around the corner, Investment Trends has published its latest research this Thursday, which takes a look at the key trends in the retail investing space from the perspective of women investors.

The 2019 2H Online Broking Report, which looks at Australian online investors, found that more women than ever are investing in order to build their wealth. Although the latest research shows that women only make up 18 percent of the 750,000 active online investors across Australia, the gap is closing.

Commenting on this trend, Recep Peker, Research Director at Investment Trends said in the report: “In recent years – and particularly through 2019 – the proportion of Australian women who began investing for the very first time grew substantially to 28% of that cohort, more than double the rate observed five plus years ago."

“While more work needs to be done to lift the ratio of women investors, Australia is substantially ahead of established markets such as the UK (11% women, 89% male) and is within touching distance of the US (21% women, 79% male),” added Peker.

Female investors rely more on education

The report also found that women rely heavily on knowledge and education. In particular, the research shows that although women most often rely on their own personal research to make investment decisions, they are more likely to speak with friends and family members in the process.

Not only that, but women are more likely to look to prominent investors and commentators for guidance and use other resources such as investment-related podcasts, forums, and blogs.

In addition to relying more on education and outside views, according to Investment Trends, women also like to start by investing small amounts of money.

“It is no coincidence, then, that both in Australia and globally, women investors have increasingly embraced low entry cost products with ETFs at their core, such as microsavings apps and robo-advice services,” added Peker.