The face of wealth is changing. An article in The Economist on International Women’s Day stated boldly, “Investment by women, and in them, is growing.”
Between 2010 and 2015 private wealth held by women grew from $34 trillion to $51 trillion – an increase of 50 percent in merely five years, they reported.
On the Forbes’ 2018 list of billionaires, women billionaires numbered at 256 out of total 2208 entries – an all-time high, with a collective worth to surpass $1 trillion. Yet, we should not gloss over the fact that wealth is still predominantly controlled by men, and that there are harsh realities surrounding female investing.
According to Crunchbase, only 8 percent of partners among top 100 venture firms were female, and 90 percent of venture dollars globally between 2012 and 2017 went to all-male teams.
Nonetheless, when women control more wealth, the face of philanthropy will also change. Some empirical studies suggest that women are more likely than men to engage in prosocial behavior, defined as voluntary behavior intended to benefit others – and this includes acts of helping and donating. Forbes statistics show that women give almost twice as much of their wealth away as men (3.5 percent versus 1.8 percent).