Women Are More than Their Gender

By Kathleen Burns Kingsbury

“When I walk into the room, the advisor only sees that I am a 41-year-old Black woman. The person makes assumptions about my work ethic and how I made my money and then jumps to giving me advice. I am so much more than my gender or my race,” said Connie. 

I often hear this type of feedback from women about their experiences with advisors. The advisor who met with Connie probably meant well. He did what many advisors do when working with female clients. He put her into a box marked “woman” without fully exploring how she viewed the world and her money. Connie didn’t hire him. 

Intersectionality

All clients, including ones who identify as female, are multidimensional human beings. It is what makes advising and coaching clients rewarding and also challenging. When it comes to prospecting and advising women, it’s best to spend time understanding their intersectionality so you can offer customized financial solutions. 

Intersectionality is a term originally coined by American scholar and lawyer Kimberle Crenshaw. In her work, she highlights how race, gender, class, and other factors are interconnected. This concept is useful to apply to advising women because they comprise over half the U.S. population and come from diverse backgrounds. While women prospects and clients may identify as “female,” their perspective on money, wealth, and working with an advisor is also influenced by their socioeconomic status, cultural and ethnic background, the generation they were born into, their sexual orientation, religious upbringing and current practices, marital status, personal money history, and lifestyle choices. 

3 Ways to Become More Inclusive

To be inclusive in your practice, you need to integrate complexity into your marketing strategy, discovery process, and advisor training.

1. Develop nuanced marketing personas. Start by thinking about your target female clients in a more nuanced way. Go beyond her gender, income, and financial assets. Think about her intersectionality and how these various factors influence her relationship with money and with you.

Replace a broad-brush persona such as “career professional with $500,000 in investable assets” with more specific attributes. For example, “a woman of color who is a career professional with $500,000 in investable assets, who is divorced with children, has a strong religious upbringing, and came from a working-class upbringing.” This new description gives you a better picture of whom you want to attract, and it trains your brain to think in more nuanced ways. (For more on creating personas or avatars, see “Improve your marketing with a client avatar” in the Oct. 2020 NAPFA Advisor.)

2. Build probing questions into your discovery process. Create a list of questions that address the different lenses through which your female client sees the world. Don’t be afraid to get personal. These varied areas of her life matter, and they affect each other in ways that you won’t understand until you ask. Talking about her intersectionality and history will foster trust. It also will provide you with ideas on how working with you can help her achieve her financial goals and dreams.

Here are some examples:

• How did the culture you were born into shape your thoughts and beliefs about money? What cultural traditions and beliefs do you want to keep and why? Which ones do you want to let go?
• What ideas about work, money, and wealth were encouraged in your generation? How does this generational money philosophy help you maintain a healthy, wealthy lifestyle? How does it get in the way?
• What gender stereotypes were you taught, either verbally or by observation, and how have these lessons affected your money mindset?
• How would you describe your sexual orientation, and what pronouns do you prefer? How do you think your sexual orientation affects your money mindset?
• How does your social class (working class, middle class, middle upper class, or affluent) affect your money thoughts, beliefs, and habits? What money scripts and money habits from this social class work for you? What thoughts and behaviors do not?
• What religious and spiritual beliefs were you raised with, and how do these teachings affect your relationship with money?
• What significant personal money events (losing a job, winning the lottery, inheriting money, declaring bankruptcy, going into foreclosure, etc.) have you experienced in your lifetime? How have these experiences shaped your relationship with money and wealth?                                    

3. Get training on the human side of finance. Technical training is necessary but not enough to provide your women clients with a client experience that will wow them. Commit to seeking out education that addresses emotionally intelligent communication, financial well-being, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Learning to put yourself in your client’s shoes, appreciating the many aspects that make up her emotional and financial health, and improving your knowledge and skills relative to DEI are paramount. They are the keys to connecting and collaborating with diverse women who need your services. 

Connie’s Solution

Connie eventually found an advisor she liked and hired. When I asked her what was different about this advisor’s approach, she said she “felt seen and heard.” The advisor asked questions about her history with money and about her life experiences and how they affected her financial behaviors. The advisor didn’t try to put her in a box. 

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Kathleen Burns Kingsbury is the founder of KBK Wealth Connection, a training and consulting firm specializing in women and wealth and financial psychology. She offers financial therapy and workshops to advisors and their clients. For more information, visit breakingmoneysilence.com.

image credit: istock.com/adamkaz