Every week, I sit across from women who take my breath away.
Not because of their titles or their income, but because of what they’ve built.
The woman who got laid off at 52 and launched a consulting firm that now outperforms her old salary.
The one who started a cleaning company during COVID with nothing but supplies, a reliable car, and relentless work ethic.
The real estate agent who rebuilt her life after divorce.
The attorney who left a prestigious firm to build her own practice.
The doctor balancing a full caseload, three kids, and somehow still being the first one in and the last one out.
These women are not outliers. They are a movement. And they’re not alone. Women are now starting businesses at record rates in the United States — nearly half of all new businesses launched in 2024 were started by women.
In light of International Women’s Day, I want to honor them — and the millions like them — by telling the full story of women and money: where we’ve been, where we stand today, and the extraordinary future that is being built, one business and one financial plan at a time.
“It Never Occurred to Me That I Couldn’t”
I didn’t learn this from a book.
My parents started the first flight school in Colorado. It was a real business — runways, aircraft, instructors, students — built from the ground up by two people who believed in something and went after it.
I was seven when they divorced.
And what my mother did next shaped everything I would later understand about women, money, and courage.
She bought my dad out of the company.
And she ran it.
I grew up at that airport. I watched my mom navigate a male-dominated industry — not by asking permission, not by shrinking, but by simply knowing her business better than anyone in the room.
She managed employees, handled finances, made payroll, kept planes in the air, and still made it home.
The hangar smelled like jet fuel and possibility. (I still love the smell of jet fuel)
Fast forward decades. I was sitting across from a client recently, having coffee, talking business. She looked at me and asked, “What made you think you could start a successful business?”
I sat with that for a moment. And then I told her the truth.
“It never occurred to me that I couldn’t.”
Not because I had it all figured out. Not because the path was clear or the risk was small. But because from the time I was seven years old, I had watched a woman run a company in a world that wasn’t always built for her — and she never once acted like it was remarkable. It just was what it was. Work to be done, a business to run, a life to build.
That is the gift that the women around us give us when they refuse to shrink: they expand what we believe is possible for ourselves. My mom gave me that gift. The women I network with every week give it to each other. And it is no small thing.
Because the data tells us that not every woman grows up watching her mother buy a business and run an airport. And that gap in belief — in what feels possible — is just as real and just as costly as the wage gap itself.
The Past: A History That Explains Everything
To understand the financial gap women face today, you have to understand how recently the rules changed — and how many invisible walls still remain.
It was not until 1974, with the passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, that women in the United States were legally allowed to open a credit card in their own name without a male co-signer. Think about that: a generation of women who are alive today could not independently access credit.
Before that:
• In most states, married women could not own property independently until the mid-20th century
• Women were routinely denied mortgages and business loans without a husband’s signature
• The Equal Pay Act wasn’t passed until 1963, and even then, enforcement was weak and incomplete
• Women weren’t permitted to serve on juries in all 50 states until 1973
This isn’t ancient history. These were the rules governing the mothers and grandmothers of women working today.
The financial gap between men and women today is not an accident — it is the accumulated compound interest of decades of legal and structural exclusion.
The numbers carry that history in them. And so do the women.
The Present: Progress, Persistence, and a Stubborn Gap
The Pay Gap Is Real — and Still Wide
The headlines say progress has been made. And it has. But the gap remains stubborn and significant. According to Pew Research Center, women earned 85 cents for every dollar men earned in 2024 — up from 81 cents in 2003, but still a meaningful shortfall. The U.S. Census Bureau’s measure, which looks only at full-time workers, puts women at 80.9 cents on the dollar — and notably, that gap actually widened in 2024 for the second year in a row, as men’s wages rose while women’s stagnated.
Equal Pay Day in 2025 fell on March 25 — meaning women had to work nearly three additional months into the new year just to match what men earned in 2024 alone.
And the gap is not equal across all women. According to the Economic Policy Institute, Black and Hispanic women are paid 24.7% and 27.4% less than white male counterparts, respectively — even when controlling for education, age, and experience.
The Wealth Gap Is Larger Than the Pay Gap
Income inequality is only the beginning. The wealth gap — the difference in total assets between men and women — is even more severe. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, women ages 50 and older report just 77 cents in wealth for every dollar reported by men the same age. For older Black and Hispanic women, median total wealth represents only 16 to 18 percent of what older white, non-Hispanic men hold.
The retirement picture is especially troubling. A Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies survey found the median retirement savings for women stands at $56,000 — compared to $92,000 for men. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, among those who do have retirement accounts, women hold only 60% as many assets as men: $92,919 at the median, compared to $151,861 for men.
Women live longer. They need more. And they have less to work with.
The Fidelity 2025 Women and Money study found that 81% of women say their finances keep them up at night — with top stressors including paying for emergency expenses and monthly bills. And according to research from the County Health Rankings, over her lifetime the average female worker loses over $530,000 due to the gender wage gap, while a college-educated woman faces losses of nearly $800,000.
The Confidence and Investing Gap
Women are also less likely to invest. A 2024 SoFi survey found 64% of women have never invested. According to Bankrate, the average woman keeps 70 cents of every dollar in cash — a conservative habit that quietly costs hundreds of thousands of dollars in foregone compound growth over a lifetime.
But here’s the hopeful counterpoint: Fidelity’s 2024 research found that the number of women investing in the stock market rose 18 percentage points from 2023 to 2024, reaching 71%. The tide is beginning to turn.
The Rise: Women Are Building Their Own Tables
If there is one force reshaping women’s financial future right now, it is entrepreneurship.
Not as a side note. Not as a trend. As a revolution.
In 2024, women launched 49% of all new businesses in the United States — a record high, and a 69% increase from 2019. For the first time in measurable history, women are starting businesses at the same rate as men.
Let that land.
The women starting consulting firms after layoffs, cleaning companies during a pandemic, real estate agencies, law practices, medical groups — they are part of a wave that is reshaping the U.S. economy in real time.
The Numbers Behind the Movement
• 14.5 million women-owned businesses exist in the U.S. as of 2024, comprising 39.2% of all U.S. firms (Synovus, 2025)
• These businesses generate $3.3 trillion in annual revenue and employ 12.9 million workers nationwide
• Women-owned businesses grew 43.5% faster than men-owned businesses from 2019 to 2024
• Employment in women-owned businesses grew 19.5% from 2019 to 2024
• Black women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the U.S., with startup rates more than doubling from 2019 to 2023
• Women of Color now represent nearly 50% of all women small business owners
• The number of women running Fortune 500 companies hit a record high of 55 in 2025 — up from just a handful two decades ago
• According to Pew Research Center, 46% of all U.S. managers were women in 2023, up from 29% in 1980
And what is driving this? Some of it is opportunity. Digital tools have lowered the cost of starting a business dramatically. Remote work opened the door for more flexibility. But if you ask the women themselves, many will tell you the same thing the data confirms: the wage gap made them do it.
A Synovus study found that the persistent wage gap motivates many women to pursue entrepreneurship to increase earnings. They stopped waiting for the table to have a seat for them. They built their own.
The Future: What’s Coming — and What Still Needs to Change
The Outlook Is Powerful
The trajectory points toward a dramatic shift in financial power. Women are predicted to control 75% of discretionary spending by 2028, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The wealth transfer underway — as Baby Boomers pass assets to the next generation — is expected to put trillions more in the hands of women, who statistically outlive their male partners.
Gen Z women are already outperforming earlier generations on financial preparation. The Transamerica study found Gen Z women are beginning to save for retirement around age 20 — a full 15 years earlier than the average Baby Boomer woman, who started at 35. That 15-year head start, compounded over a lifetime, is transformative.
The Gaps That Still Need Closing
Progress is real. But honest celebration means honest accounting. The World Economic Forum estimates it could take 134 years to close the global gender pay gap at the current rate of change. For women of color, the picture is starker: the National Women’s Law Center estimates Black women, Latinas, Indigenous women, and Native Hawaiian women will lose over $1 million in a 40-year career compared to white, non-Hispanic men.
On the entrepreneurship front, while women are starting businesses at record rates, only 4.2% of women-owned businesses ever scale to true middle-market size. Access to capital remains a profound barrier: 46% of American women entrepreneurs report experiencing gender bias when trying to raise capital.
The path forward is not just about individual women making better financial decisions. It is about systems — pay transparency laws, affordable childcare, equitable access to capital, and financial education starting in school — that make it possible for all women to build the financial lives they deserve.
What You Can Do: A Note to the Women I Network With Every Week
To the consultant who rebuilt after a layoff. To the entrepreneur who started with nothing but a bucket and a belief. To the attorney, the doctor, the agent, the coach, the creator —
You are already doing the hard work. Let’s make sure your money is working as hard as you are.
Here is where I see the most opportunity, and the most urgency:
1. Stop Managing Money Backward — Use a Forward-Looking Plan
Most women manage money reactively — reviewing what was spent last month instead of directing what happens next month. The Plan Ahead Method flips this. Before each month begins, assign every dollar a specific job: savings, investments, fixed expenses, variable spending, and a buffer. You are not budgeting what already happened. You are designing what comes next. This single shift changes everything.
2. Protect Your Owner’s Pay
If you run your own business, your pay cannot be an afterthought. Decide in advance what you pay yourself. Build it into the plan. Separate your business and personal accounts with intention, not in a panic. Your business should serve your life — not consume it.
3. Invest — Even Before You Feel Ready
The data is clear: women who wait to invest until they “know enough” or “feel secure” lose years of compound growth they cannot recover. You do not need to be an expert. You need to start. Automate a contribution to your retirement account this month. Even $100. The habit matters more than the amount.
4. Close Your Own Wealth Gap
You cannot control the systemic pay gap. But you can control your margin. With the right forward-looking financial plan, even a high-earning woman with inconsistent cash flow can build a retirement account, a buffer, and real wealth. The goal isn’t just to earn more — it’s to keep more, protect more, and grow more.
The Bottom Line
The women I network with every week are not waiting to be saved. They are not waiting for the pay gap to close on its own. They are not waiting for permission.
They are starting businesses. Leading teams. Raising families. Building legacies.
The financial system was not built for them. Many of the rules were not written with them in mind. And yet, here they are — representing half of all new businesses, employing millions, generating trillions.
This International Women’s Day, the most powerful thing we can do is tell the full truth: the gaps are real, the history is heavy, and the future is being built by women who refused to wait.
Happy (belated) International Women’s Day.
Now let’s go build the financial future you deserve.👊
