Why Women Are Better Investors Than They Think — And The Data That Proves It | With Professor Saumitra Jha

Most of us have heard of the gender wage gap. But there's another gap that gets far less attention — the gender investing gap. And according to new research from Stanford, the fix might be simpler than anyone expected. In this episode, we sit down with Professor Saumitra Jha, Associate Professor of Political Economy at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Affairs. He joins us to share findings from his groundbreaking study published in The Economic Journal (January 2025), co-authored with Moses Shayo, which reveals that simply participating in stock trading — even in a study setting — measurably closes the gender confidence gap in finance.

WHAT WE COVER

— How the gender gap shows up in investing: lower participation, lower confidence, and less financial risk-taking — even among women with strong educational and career credentials.

— Why the confidence gap may matter more than the knowledge gap. Confidence, participation, and knowledge are mutually reinforcing — and breaking into any one of them can shift all three.

— The surprising findings from the study: women who participated in the trading experiment were more engaged, answered more factual questions correctly, and ended up with at least comparable — if not slightly better — investment returns than men.

— Why men in the study actually became more reserved in their self-assessments over time, while women grew in confidence.

— How women can take their first steps into investing: practical, low-pressure ways to build familiarity, knowledge, and confidence with markets.

Access Professor Jha's paper here: https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/working-paper/trading-stocks-builds-financial-confidence-and-compresses-gender-gap

Learn more about Banking On Girls Mother-Daughter Workshops here: https://mom-daughter-workshop.lovable.app/

This International Women's Month, we're zooming out and looking at the bigger picture of where women stand financially, what's holding them back, and what each of us can do about it.

The numbers are sobering. The World Economic Forum estimates it will take 123 years to close the gender economic gap at the current pace. Women are expected to accumulate just 74% of the wealth men do over a full working lifetime. And yet — when women do invest, research shows they can achieve better returns than men. The gap isn't ability. It's access, knowledge, and confidence.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why financial literacy is the lever — and why the gender gap in investing is one-third a confidence problem, not just a knowledge problem

• The age-seven finding — research from the University of Cambridge showing that many money habits form before age seven, and what that means for how we raise financially capable children

• The silence that has a cost — why money being treated as taboo in so many households hits girls hardest, and what happens when we break that silence

• The generational ripple effect — why financial literacy in one woman doesn't stay with one woman

This episode is for anyone who believes the 123-year timeline is unacceptable, and wants to understand the role they can play in shortening it.

For more information on Banking On Girls Mother-Daughter Workshops go to: https://mom-daughter-workshop.lovable.app/

• What I've been up to and what's coming this season

• Why moms and daughters learning together makes all the difference

• The moment teen girls realize time is their biggest financial superpower

• The emotional side of money nobody talks about

• How a shared financial language turns conflict into connection

• Learn more about the workshops: https://mom-daughter-workshop.lovable.app

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