“Helping women achieve their full potential is good for us all..”

Jana Hlistova

May 12, 2024

Transcript

Welcome to our #236 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we highlight a talk by Ali Crossley who is a Managing Director of Distribution at Legal & General. She focuses on the barriers that hold women back in the financial services sector and what can be done to change that.

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And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

“Helping women achieve their full potential is good for us all..”

Ali Crossley, MD at Legal & General talks about what holds women back at work in the financial services services sector, and what can be done about it.

Ali Crossley, Managing Director of Distribution at Legal & General, outlined three barriers for women in the workplace:

the authority gap
the achievement penalty
and the menopause scrapheap.

Speaking at the Women in Protection conference in early May, Ali explained what we know only too well:

“Helping women doesn’t just mean that things only get better for women or that men have to lose out in some way… Helping half of our workforce achieve their full potential is good for us all…”

But because our culture regards authority as a male quality, rising through the ranks becomes much more difficult for women.

Women also face an achievement penalty. Their success is more likely to lead to relationship breakdown or divorce. Male partner stress goes up when women earn 40% or more of the total household income.

And menopause can ‘hit women hard’.

But without the support required at work, the highly experienced senior female talent pool will opt out or underperform. The menopause currently costs the UK economy 14m working days every year.

And 1bn+ women globally will be in menopause by 2025.

The data says it all…

…helping women reach their full potential will make businesses 25% more likely to earn above average profits. Not to mention add 14m of the otherwise lost working days in the UK economy.

Ali called for more support of gender equality in the workplace; she wants to:

“… see more men challenging their own biases and supporting their partners through the achievement gap..”

But ultimately, it is the CEO and executive team in every business which must be held responsible for building a workplace which works for both men AND women.

Continuing to apply a ‘male only lens’ in an environment which employs a growing number of women, especially into senior roles, renders it inadequate.

This is one of the reasons many women decide to start their own business or seek flexibility via a ‘portfolio career’.

What next? (Re) read and (re) listen to The Purse Podcast:

Financial news

Global debt rose by $1.3tn to a new ATH of $315tn in Q1 2024. Moreover, after 3 consecutive quarters of decline, global debt-to-GDP resumed its upward trajectory in Q1 2024. Emerging market debt topped $105tn in Q1 2024, w/largest increases coming from China, India, Mexico.
The FTSE 100 is set to close at another record high after the prospects of a summer interest rate cut grew larger.
The ratio of the Magnificant 7 vs the S&P 493 (S&P 500 ex Mag 7) has just hit another ATH.
Liquidity is the biggest driver of risk assets, particularly growth assets, crypto and technology trades more or less in lockstep with US net liquidity.
Stanley Druckenmiller gives Biden's economic policies an 'F,' blames the Fed for reigniting inflation.
Bank of England keeps interest rates at 5.25% but hints at a June cut. Policymakers say they want to see more evidence that price pressures are easing before reducing rates.
UK economy exits recession with fastest pace of expansion in two years of 0.6%. This growth surpassed economists’ expectations of 0.4% and reversed the 0.3% contraction observed in the final quarter of 2023.
Berkshire Hathaway’s cash pile hit another record at $189bn as billionaire investor Warren Buffett sold ~13% of its stake in Apple in Q1 2024. Buffett said he didn’t mind amassing the cash and said it could reach $200bn by the end of Q2

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi

Most cryptocurrencies are down this week, as the price of Bitcoin and other major coins and tokens struggled to gain ground.
Bitcoin is now trading for $60,730, according to CoinGecko—a seven-day drop of more than 3%+.
Ethereum struggled more than other major cryptocurrencies, dropping by close to 7%+ over the week. It's now priced at $2,906. The asset has been gradually declining since a high-profile lawsuit by software company Consensys alleged that the SEC was deliberately trying to make things difficult for those in the Ethereum sphere.
Solana-based Bonk is down nearly 15%, trading for $0.00002342. Dogwifhat, which also runs on Solana, took a dip of more than 7% over seven days. It's now priced at $3.12.
Coinbase can't force the SEC to write new rules, SEC argues in new brief. The SEC's filing argues that it's unreasonable to call existing digital asset regulation "unworkable," and denied that a whole new regime is needed,
ARK Invest and 21 Shares cut staking component from latest spot Ethereum ETF filing.
Mark Cuban slams SEC's Gary Gensler, says 'crypto voters will be heard' in the 2024 election

Coffee Break? Read This

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka. We do no provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial adviser.