The
financial services sector has spent years blaming a confidence problem for
keeping women out of investing. Research from eToro suggests that explanation
is not only wrong, it’s making things worse.

Financial Industry’s “Confidence
Gap” Messaging Backfires on Female Investors

An analysis
of more than 80 UK reports and campaigns published by financial companies
between 2020 and 2025 found that 57% portrayed women’s confidence around
investing in negative terms.

The reports
recycled familiar phrases: women are “too nervous to invest,”
“unsure where to start,” or “too scared of losing money.”
Only 21% took a different angle, highlighting qualities like patience and
long-term focus that female investors bring to the table.

The
language matters. When eToro and research firm Appinio tested these messages on
2,000 UK women, nearly one in five said being told they lack confidence made
them less likely to invest. Almost a quarter felt patronised. Another 17% said
it drained their motivation.

“This
constant negative framing is not harmless commentary, it’s damaging,” said
Dan Moczulski, UK Managing Director at eToro. “You could argue it’s an
unintentional act of collective self-harm by the very industry that claims to
want to support women and close the gender investment gap.”

Performance Data
Contradicts Stereotype

Multiple
studies show female investors actually deliver stronger returns than men.
Warwick Business School research from 2018 found women
outperformed men by nearly 2% annually. Their tendency to ask questions,
weigh options carefully and avoid unnecessary risks drives better outcomes, not
worse ones.

“We
don’t need women to invest like men; we need them to invest like
themselves,” Moczulski said. “What really sets them apart is a
natural reluctance to be overconfident.”

Women trade
less frequently than men and take longer-term views, both behaviors that
contribute to superior performance. What the industry labels as hesitation is
often just better judgment.

Positive Framing Shows
Different Response

When the
research flipped the script, results changed. Women shown the headline
“Women investors outperform men by 4%” reacted differently. Among
current non-investors, 26% said they wanted to learn more about investing.
Overall motivation to invest jumped 44%.

But the
problem extends beyond messaging to representation. In the eToro research, 41%
of women said they don’t relate to people who talk publicly about investing.
More than half said the conversation is dominated by men, and 54% said it’s
mostly finance professionals.

An earlier
study conducted this year by eToro examined this issue: men
account for 75 percent of screen time in financial media, while women are
often shown in subordinate roles.

Dr. Ylva
Baeckström, Senior Lecturer in Finance at King’s Business School, said the
industry needs to change its approach. “Branding women as underconfident
undermines women’s excellent investment abilities,” she said.
“Negative gender stereotypes are both powerful and destructive,
contributing to the gender investment gap.”

Jill Scott Joins Push to
Close Gap

The gender
investment gap in the UK now stands at £678 billion, roughly equivalent to
Switzerland’s economy, according to Boring Money data published with eToro.
About 3.3 million more men invest than women, and that gap widened by 200,000
people in the past year.

eToro
brought on Jill Scott MBE, the former England footballer, as ambassador for its
Loud Investing campaign. Scott sees parallels between elite sports and
investing success.

“In
football, discipline and patience are everything,” Scott said. “You
don’t win tournaments overnight, you build towards them over years. It’s the
same with investing. The industry has been too quick to focus on what women
supposedly lack, when the truth is our approach is a strength.”

The Loud
Investing initiative aims to change how the industry talks about female
investors and push more women to start investing. The campaign argues that
shared knowledge and open conversation about money can help close the gap,
rather than recycling stereotypes that have failed to move the needle.

This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.

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