Education, new technologies and “finfluencers” are affecting how young women earn, save and plan for the future.

For years, economists, policymakers, financial institutions — and this particular writer — have been stymied by the persistent wealth gap that exists between men and women. 

Despite educational and professional gains for many, women still earn less than men on average, and save dramatically less as a result. Not only are women’s retirement accounts roughly 30 percent lower than men’s — a number that hasn’t budged in at least 15 years — that money has to cover nearly six extra years of life on average, compared to men.

On the one hand, I get it. Many of these disparities arise from systemic inequities that have hindered women for decades. Women are more likely to work in low-wage jobs, less likely to have access to retirement accounts at those jobs, and far more likely to lose financial ground as unpaid caregivers.

It’s all the more remarkable, then, to see a handful of new studies that point to more positive and proactive financial behavior, particularly among younger women. Even better, these suggest that a confluence of educational efforts, new technology, and financial influencers could help sustain an upward trajectory for more women.

“The reason I’m not discouraged is that these statistics are not our destiny, and I think many women know this,” says Annamaria Lusardi, senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. “Now we’re seeing the fruits of their efforts to move forward.”

Making Strides 

The financial industry is facing a sea change as more women take the reins of their own finances. Women are now in charge of more investable assets than ever before.

To be fair, we’re also still seeing the pain points where many women, particularly older cohorts, are still struggling. A new report from AARP reveals that half of women 50-plus say they feel less financially secure than one year ago versus only roughly a third of men. And less than half say they feel confident that they’ll have enough to live comfortably in retirement.

It’s a testament to the crossroads we’re at, with older women contending with historic deficits — and Millennial and Gen Z women showing signs of progress. And these glimmers of change couldn’t come at a better time. As the “great generational wealth transfer” of trillions of dollars in assets continues, there’s a sense of urgency to help women build skills and confidence when it comes to money. 

The financial industry is facing a sea change as more women take the reins of their own finances. Women are now in charge of more investable assets than ever before, according to a 2025 report by McKinsey: In the U.S., total assets controlled by affluent women (defined as those with assets of $100,000 or more) rose from $10 trillion in 2018 to about $18 trillion in 2023, due to stock market gains and inheritances, as well as growth in women’s earnings.

Other studies show similar trends. According to Fidelity’s 2024 “Women and Investing” survey, 71 percent of women reported investing in the stock market versus 60 percent in 2023, with Gen Z (77 percent) and Millennial (74 percent) women outpacing Gen X (65 percent) and Boomer (70 percent) cohorts.

The tilt toward younger women also shows up in broader population measures like the Survey of Consumer Finances, collated by the Sightlines Project (a free, searchable database developed by Stanford Center on Longevity researchers). In 2022, younger women, ages 25 to 34, were 11.3 percentage points more likely to have access to $3,000 in emergency funds versus women of the same age in 2007. 

Similarly, women ages 35 to 44 were almost 10 percentage points more likely to be in a household with retirement account ownership compared with women in that age group some 15 years earlier.

“The data doesn’t tell us exactly why we’re seeing these changes,” says Yochai Shavit, director of research at the Stanford Center on Longevity. “But even though young adult women still lag behind young adult men of the same age in these areas, the trajectory for young women is moving in the right direction — which is encouraging.” 

Granted, these are just a handful of studies. But even so, teasing out the “why” behind these changes in women’s behavior, modest as they are, is important if we’re going to build systems and initiatives to which women will respond. 

While many older women still carry the cumulative impact of decades of wage disparities and interrupted careers, some Gen Z and Millennial women are embracing stronger financial habits — in part because they’ve had access to education, technology and tools at an earlier stage, suggests Martha Susana Jaimes, senior research economist at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. “I think there’s been more exposure to the need and importance of retirement planning, as well as access through apps and automation,” Jaimes says, “so that might offset some of the negative impact of other factors.”

“A New Wave of Digitally Powered Feminism”

“We’re seeing a bit of a buzz, a TikTok generation of women who are determined to be financially empowered.”

The use of structural “nudges” like automatic enrollment and automated savings in retirement plans seems to benefit women. One telling report comes from Vanguard, which analyzed workplace retirement plan participation and savings rates among men and women in some 2.3 million individual accounts. At all income levels below $150,000 (i.e., the vast majority of account holders), women in automatic enrollment plans participated at slightly higher rates than men. 

According to the report, the adoption of automatic enrollment is mitigating the differences in participation and savings rates between men and women.

The growing presence of financial influencers, or “finfluencers,” on social media platforms is another factor. Female influencers like Vivian Tu (Your Rich BFF) and Tori Dunlap (Her First 100K) have amassed millions of followers by sharing inspiration, education and sense of community online. “We’re seeing a bit of a buzz, a TikTok generation of women who are determined to be financially empowered,” says Josie Cox, author of Women Money Power: The Rise and Fall of Economic Equality. “It’s like a new wave of digitally powered feminism.”

In an earlier paper, Annamaria Lusardi and her colleagues found that people who think about their financial future, and take simple steps toward a financial plan, tend to save more for retirement — a testament to the cumulative impact of small wins. “As women become more conscious, they tend to become more knowledgeable, and take steps in financial planning,” Lusardi says. “Over time, we see that the advantage of doing so is big — you see it in the data and in retirement account balances. It’s important to understand how these factors can add up. This is a long game.”

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MP Dunleavey is an award-winning journalist, columnist for SCL Magazine and a regular contributor to the Kiplinger Retirement Report. She was a New York Times personal finance columnist and a contributing editor to Money magazine.