#Investlikeagirl: Women & money myths, debunked
Somewhere along the way, a set of beliefs about women and money became so widespread that they started to feel like facts: Women are too emotional. They're not interested. Their partner handles it. None of these are facts. They are myths, and they have real financial consequences for women. In this blog, we go through five of the most common ones and put them up against what the research actually says. The findings might surprise you. Spoiler: women don't just keep up with men as investors, they outperform them! Read on for the data, and for 5 concrete steps to get started with investing.
The gap is real. But the explanation for it is not the one you think.
Within the neon user base, the distribution of 85% men and 15% women in 2018 has shifted to 60/40 today. However, the share of women among actively investing users is only 28%. This reflects the overall Swiss picture: only 41% of women own securities such as shares or funds, compared with 58% of men (IFZ Retail Banking Study 2024, cited by the SIX Group). The gap is not about discipline. The Sotomo research institute found that women save nearly as diligently as men. The difference shows up afterwards, in what they do with those savings: only 32% of women invest part of their savings in shares or funds, compared to 48% of men.
Myth 1: «Women aren't interested in investing»
Reality: The industry was never interested in them.
When you look at the data, the picture that emerges is not one of disinterest. 94% of women surveyed in the «Women's Perspectives 2026» by UBS and gfs.bern stated that money gives them a sense of security, and when investing, 57% cited security as their most important goal – well ahead of wealth accumulation (34%) and returns (21%).
The same study found that women very frequently cite «not having enough money» as the reason they hesitate to invest – even when they are, in the researchers' words, organising their day-to-day finances very deliberately. That is a perception the industry has done little to correct, not a lack of genuine interest on the part of women.
Myth 2: «Women are too emotional to make rational financial decisions»
Reality: The research shows the opposite pattern, and it belongs to men.
Data shows that women are less prone to emotional reactions to fluctuations in the stock market, which means they tend to hold their investments for longer rather than having an impulsive reaction to a drop in value and selling.
Warwick Business School found that women traded nine times a year on average, compared to 13 times for men, and were less likely to indulge in speculative, «lottery-style» investing.
Men are generally characterised as not holding too much weight in their emotions, yet their emotions are often highly invested in their investments, with rash decisions most often led by anger, ego, or fear. A study by investment advisor Adam Hennick found that 69.2% of high-income male investors regretted investment decisions that were based on emotion and that men were nearly twice as likely as women to buy a stock on a hunch (13.7% vs. 7.5%).
Myth 3: «My partner handle the finances, so I don't need to»
Reality: 80% of women will be solely responsible for their finances at some point in their lives.
A UBS Wealth Management «Own Your Worth» report found that 70% of married women leave investment and financial decisions to their husbands, with 81% of them believing that their husbands know more about financial matters.
The problem with this is that it creates massive exposure for women. No matter which financial strategy a couple uses, between 80% and 90% of women will find themselves solely responsible for their finances at some point. More than half of divorcees and widows discover financial surprises after the relationship ends, such as outdated wills and debts. And it's not an older-generation problem. UBS's research found these patterns consistent across all age groups.
Myth 4: «Financial advisors treat everyone the same»
Reality: Advisors spend over 60% of their time focused on the man in the room, regardless of their own awareness of it.
Unconscious bias in financial advising is well-documented and directly measurable. Merrill Lynch researchers attended live meetings between heterosexual couples and their financial advisors and used eye-tracking software to determine where attention was directed. Both male and female financial advisors spent over 60% of their time focused on the man, and most were unaware of their own biases.
The most common biased assumptions logged included assuming the man was the decision maker, assuming the woman wants direction, and assuming women are less knowledgeable than men about investing.
Additionally, an Edward Jones 2024 study found that 67% of women investors don't feel understood by their financial advisors.
Myth 5: «Women lack confidence because they lack the knowledge»
Reality: Women know more than they think. The gap is largely one of confidence, not competence.
Women are consistently more likely than men to answer «don't know» on standard financial literacy questions (such as the well-known «Big Three» questions on compound interest, inflation, and risk diversification) – even when they in fact know the correct answer.
Research from the ZEW Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research found that when the «don't know» option is removed and respondents have to commit to an answer, women's correct-answer rate rises substantially, closing much of the apparent gap. Roughly a third of the overall gender gap in financial literacy comes down to lower confidence, not lower actual knowledge. What women need isn't more information. It's the confidence to act on what they already know.
The data is in: Women outperform men as investors. Here's how to start.
When you look across the full body of research, a consistent picture emerges. Researchers at the Warwick Business School tracked the behaviour of 2'800 investors over three years and found that women achieved, on average, annual returns of up to 1.8 percentage points higher than men.
A 2025 study by McKinsey also found that women tend to prefer stable investments and adopt a more cautious approach, prioritising long-term financial security.
The gender investment gap does not come from a lack of capability. It comes from a lack of access, from confidence that was never built, and from a system that asked women to fit into a conversation they were never invited to join. The data has already answered the question of whether you can do this.
Now here's how to actually start.
5 Steps to start your investment journey
Step 1: Know your budget
Before you invest, get clear on what you can set aside each month without financial stress. A simple budget overview helps you commit to a plan sustainably. Starting with CHF 10 or CHF 50 a month is a real start. The amount matters less than the consistency.
Step 2: Define your goals
What are you investing for? Retirement security, a property, long-term independence? Your goals shape your time horizon and your risk tolerance. If you prefer lower risk and a long-term approach, diversified ETFs are a widely used starting point. If ETFs are still unfamiliar, neon's «ABCD... ETF?» walks you through the key concepts in plain language.
Step 3: Choose your assets
Once you know your goals, you can decide how to invest. The core principle is diversification: spreading your risk across different asset classes rather than concentrating in one place. Not sure where to begin? neon's ready-made investment plan templates are a good starting point.
Step 4: Open an investment account
Not all investment accounts carry the same fees or conditions. Compare costs, minimum amounts, and the fine print before committing. With neon invest, you can start from as little as CHF 1, with fees from 0.5% and no hidden charges.
Step 5: Start. Then Stay the Course.
The most important step is the first one. You do not need to feel completely ready to begin. Start small, observe, and learn as you go. Compounding works best with time, and time is the one resource you cannot get back.
The research is clear, the tools are available, and the gap is not yours to own. Every woman who starts investing, at whatever amount, with whatever level of confidence, is making a decision that compounds over time, financially and beyond. You don't need to have it all figured out before you begin. You just need to begin.
Useful resources at neon
Watch our explanatory videos:
Sources cited
«Frauen sparen, Männer legen an.» Sotomo, commissioned by Zurich Insurance and Verein Geschlechtergerechter, August 2022.
«Sustainable Investing Trends» (citing the IFZ Retail Banking Study 2024). SIX Group.
«Women's Perspectives 2026 – a study by the UBS Worry Barometer.» UBS & gfs.bern, June 2026.
«Emotional Investing: How Men And Women Can Find A Balance» (citing the Adam Hennick investor study). Forbes Finance Council, July 2023.
«Own Your Worth: How Women Can Break the Cycle of Abdication and Take Control of Their Wealth.» UBS Wealth Management USA, May 2018.
«Advisers Need to Address Gender Stereotypes About Women: Merrill» (citing Merrill Lynch Wealth Management's eye-tracking study). InvestmentNews, August 2020.
«Fearless Woman: Financial Literacy and Stock Market Participation.» Bucher-Koenen, T., Alessie, R., Lusardi, A., & van Rooij, M. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 21-015, March 2021.
«Beyond Knowledge: Confidence and the Gender Gap in Financial Literacy.» Cziriak, M., Bucher-Koenen, T., & Alessie, R. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 24-083, 2024.
«Women Tend to Be 'Risk-Appropriate' Investors, Expert Says» (citing Warwick Business School's 2,800-investor analysis and McKinsey's 2025 findings). CNBC, April 2026.
