\u201cThe female empowerment I want to see is my fellow South African women identifying and grabbing hold of the opportunities that exist to narrow the gap with men, especially in a financial sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ishani Khoosal-Kala, 10X\u2019s Head of Employee Benefits, Corporate Distribution, is the first to admit that such a sentiment might not make her terribly popular in all quarters but, she says, \u201ca great opportunity for female financial emancipation is being missed\u201d.<\/p>\n
The opportunity she is referring to is the simple saving and investing revolution that technology and other developments in the investment world has begun to enable. \u201cNot only has access been expanded and products simplified,\u201d she says, \u201cbut so much information is freely available online.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a multitude of reasons that many women find themselves at a disadvantage to men today, many of them beyond their control, but my generation has a lot more opportunity than our mothers\u2019 to empower themselves, and I think more should be said about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ishani will be one of three panelists at 10X Investments\u2019 Women\u2019s Month webinar discussing how financial freedom and women\u2019s empowerment are connected on August 25.<\/p>\n
She will be joining Asavela Gwele, a 20-something investment consultant who has smashed through the glass ceiling before she even really experienced it, and Sonja De Bruyn, chairperson of the 10X board and a financial services expert of 20-plus years\u2019 experience.<\/p>\n
The diversity on the panel will lead to some interesting conversations. Asavela\u2019s mum was probably not even a twinkle in her own mother\u2019s eye when Sonja\u2019s mother, then just 18 years old, was leading the 1956 Women\u2019s March to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, an event that is commemorated on Women\u2019s Day in South Africa every year.<\/p>\n
Ishani is looking forward to some honest inter-generational discussion about the different challenges faced and the struggles that have yet to be won.<\/p>\n
We see the statistics often enough about gender disparity starting at birth and being magnified through school and higher education, for example (from Statistics SA), girls being so much more likely than boys (17,1% versus 0,3%) to offer \u201cfamily commitment\u201d as a reason for not attending school.<\/p>\n
Those women who do make it to the workplace earn around 30% less than their male counterparts on average (also StatsSA).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that things can be especially tough for women and girls in South Africa,\u201d said Ishani. \u201cOur society\u2019s cracks have been very badly exposed and deepened by Covid-19, with a number of studies showing how society\u2019s most vulnerable, women in particular, have borne the brunt of the economic pain during and after the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n
10X\u2019s annual Retirement Reality Report gives an especially bleak picture of retirement readiness for South African women.<\/p>\n
The data shows that women have less saved, are putting less away and, importantly, reject the best opportunity they have to narrow the gap with men, which is to invest their savings for growth.<\/p>\n
In the South African Retirement Reality Report 2021, 54% of women said they didn\u2019t have a retirement savings plan at all, compared with 46% of men.<\/p>\n
On the other end of the scale, 11% of men counted themselves among the very small cohort of people who are confident they are on a clear and positive path to a comfortable retirement, compared with just 5% of women.<\/p>\n
The data is depressing, says Ishani, but it is more alarming that women are so much less likely to invest appropriately to increase their wealth and narrow the wealth gap.<\/p>\n
\u201cInvesting in a portfolio of well-diversified growth assets and keeping fees low is a more effective method to grow wealth than saving in cash-type products. Yet only 14% of women surveyed said they invested their money for growth, compared with 24% of men.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ishani adds her own anecdotal experience from more than 10 years in the industry confirms this.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo many women don\u2019t empower themselves by informing and educating themselves and making smart choices with their savings, which inevitably means more than putting them in a savings account.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are so many tools online, such as the 10X Investments retirement calculator<\/strong><\/a><\/strong>, to assist someone wanting to create a retirement savings plan.<\/p>\n \u201cStoring money away in savings accounts that currently deliver negative real returns (that is, the interest earned is lower than the current inflation rate) destroys rather than builds wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n The investment industry was until very recently a horribly complex and exclusionary place that seemed designed to keep people out.<\/p>\n