Women and Investing Statistics (2026)

Women are in the market in record numbers. As of 2024, about 71% of US women own stock-market investments, an 18% jump from 2023, and 67% invest outside a retirement account, according to Fidelity's Women and Investing Study (see the table below).

On the broadest measure, women have actually pulled level with men: Gallup found 62% of women owned stock through a brokerage or retirement account in 2023 versus 59% of men. The old picture of investing as a male preserve is out of date.

The shift has been fast. Before 2020, only about 44% of women invested outside their retirement accounts; by 2021 that had leapt to 67%, and interest in investing rose roughly 50% during the pandemic (see the table below). A striking 42% of today's female investors started in 2020 or 2021.

Cheaper access helped: zero-commission apps, fractional shares, and a wave of financial content aimed at women lowered the barriers. What was a 40% participation figure in older surveys is now closer to two-thirds or more, depending on how you count.

Younger women lead the way. Among women, 77% of Gen Z and 74% of millennials own stock-market investments, ahead of 70% of boomers and 65% of Gen X, per Fidelity's 2024 study (see the chart below).

That Gen X dip is notable: this cohort was hit by the dot-com bust and 2008 in their prime earning years and carries heavy caregiving loads. The generational pattern suggests the investing gender gap is closing fastest among the young.

Yes, modestly and consistently. Fidelity analyzed 5.2 million accounts from 2011 to 2020 and found women outperformed men by 0.4% a year on average. Other studies find larger edges: a Warwick Business School analysis of 2,800 UK investors put it at 1.8%, and Berkeley's classic study found roughly 1% (see the chart below).

Small edges compound. On a 1 million dollar portfolio over 25 years, an extra 0.4% a year (7.4% versus 7.0%) is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Wells Fargo found women achieved higher returns while taking less risk over 2012 to 2022.

The advantage is behavioral, not a magic touch for stock-picking. Women trade about 44% less often than men and log into their accounts roughly 50% less, per Vanguard, so they pay fewer costs and are less likely to sell at the wrong moment (see the table below).

The temperament shows up in surveys too: only 3% of women call themselves aggressive investors versus 6% of men, and during volatility just 14% of women pile in more (versus 29% of men). Trading less and staying invested is, boringly, what works.

The stubborn gap is confidence, not competence. Only 28% of women say they feel comfortable making investment decisions, versus 39% of men, and 72% of women rate their investing knowledge as beginner or nonexistent against 53% of men (see the table below).

Yet on an actual knowledge quiz the gap is smaller than the self-doubt implies, and women's results are strong. The bigger cost of the confidence gap is inaction: BNY Mellon found women believe they need about $4,092 a month (roughly $50,000 a year) in spare income before they can start, a bar that keeps many on the sidelines.

The money is moving toward women. McKinsey estimates women control about a third of retail financial assets across the US and Europe today, rising to 40-45% by 2030, and expects US women to control roughly $34 trillion, close to 38% of investable assets, by 2030. Wealth held by women grew 51% from 2018 to 2023 versus 43% overall.

A big driver is the great wealth transfer: an estimated $84 trillion will pass to heirs and charities by 2045, and because women live longer and are often younger than their spouses, much of the roughly $30 trillion changing hands by 2030 will land in women's names. BNY Mellon estimates an extra $3.22 trillion would flow into markets if women invested at the same rate as men.

Participation gains have not erased the balance gap. Median retirement savings are about $50,000 for women versus $157,000 for men (Prudential, 2024), and the average 401(k) balance is around $59,000 for women versus $89,000 for men (see the table below).

The gap narrows sharply among the young: Vanguard found Gen Z women's median IRA balance is 98% of men's, but for boomers it falls to 63%, reflecting decades of lower pay and career breaks. A 2024 NCOA and WISER survey found fewer than half of women aged 25 and up have saved for retirement at all.

The gap follows women into retirement. In December 2024, retired women claiming on their own work record received an average of $1,780 a month versus $2,181 for men, a difference of $401 a month, or roughly $4,800 a year (see the chart below).

Social Security does not pay women less by design; the gap reflects lower lifetime earnings and career interruptions. Women are also more likely to claim early: 64.9% of women took reduced benefits before full retirement age versus 59.1% of men, permanently shrinking their checks.

Everything above traces back to pay. Women working full-time, year-round earned a median $57,520 in 2024 versus $71,090 for men, about 81 cents on the dollar, down from 83 cents in 2023, per the Census Bureau (see the table below). BLS puts the weekly-earnings gap at 83%.

The gap has widened two years running, and it is far wider for women of color: Black women earned about 65 cents for every dollar paid to white men in 2024. Goldman Sachs estimates the pay gap alone can leave women with a 24% shortfall in retirement savings.

Starting age is improving with each generation. Fidelity found women aged 18-35 opened their first brokerage account at about 21 and their first retirement account at 20, while women 36 and older did not start until 30 and 27 respectively.

Those extra years matter enormously because of compounding: starting a decade earlier can double or more the final balance for the same contributions. The younger cohorts closing the gap fastest are precisely the ones starting earliest.

Women lean toward long-term, values-aligned, lower-turnover portfolios. About 51% describe their strategy as conservative (versus 47% of men), and interest in ESG or impact investing runs higher: roughly 52% of women prefer ESG investments versus 44% of men, and 71% of women under 30 favor companies aligned with their values (BNY Mellon).

They are also more cautious on speculation. Among those investing outside retirement, 43% of women buy cryptocurrency versus 55% of men, and back in 2021 just 3% of women owned Bitcoin versus 11% of men. The composite picture is patient, diversified, and purpose-driven.

Women use advisers more, but often feel poorly served. Wells Fargo found 50% of women work with a financial adviser versus 37% of men, yet a New York Life survey found 44% of women report facing inequalities in investing, 48% say advisers treat women differently, and 48% feel patronized.

Representation inside the industry is thin: Vanguard found only about 1 in 7 investment professionals on active US equity funds were women, and roughly 1 in 10 named portfolio managers. That mismatch, a female-heavy client base served by a male-heavy industry, is exactly the gap fintech and AI tools aim to fill.

The data carries an encouraging lesson for everyone, not just women. The traits that give women their edge, trading less, staying invested through downturns, keeping costs low, and taking a long view, are learnable habits, not gifts. The single biggest risk in the numbers is not being wrong, it is not starting.

If the confidence gap is holding you back, the fix is a plan, not a bigger balance. Automate contributions, own a diversified core (broad index funds), define a thesis you believe in, and rebalance on a schedule rather than reacting to headlines. You do not need $50,000 of spare income to begin; you need a first contribution and a system that keeps you invested.