News and Analysis | Carla Gerlach | March 30, 2022

Three big takeaways from the Women of the World Festival

Earlier this month, we had the pleasure of attending the Women of the World (WOW) Festival 2022, which celebrates the achievements of women, girls and non-binary people, and confronts gender injustice across the globe.

Each year, the festival offers a chance to talk about and tackle the issues facing women – and the wider community – in a positive, respectful environment, with discussions ranging from sex to politics, grandmotherdom to divorce, childlessness to career changes.

At Path, we want to engage more women in discussions that allow them to regain or retain financial choice, freedom, power and purpose. WOW was a perfect opportunity for us to do this.

With this in mind, our team – along with our twelve foot UN SDG tree – travelled to London’s Southbank with the aim of empowering women with their finances and talking to them about where their money goes and what impact it can have.

It was a positive, uplifting and rewarding weekend. Of the many things we learned from the festival, there were three big themes that made a lasting impression on us:

Together, we are stronger:

WOW is a global movement, in more than 30 locations across six continents, rooted in the belief that a gender equal world is desirable, possible and urgently required.

The WOW festival certainly lived up to its name – not just with its impressive line-up of speakers, activists, musicians and comedians, but with the many thousands of women from all walks of life, coming together to work towards the same goal. It shone a light on some wonderful projects, individuals and small businesses too.

The message was clear: together, we are stronger. If we discuss, challenge, champion and act as one, then great things can be accomplished.

We came away from the London event feeling truly inspired. WOW is perfectly aligned with our values and has given us even more motivation to work in partnership with others to pursue our mission of promoting positive, impactful change for people and planet.

We need to talk (and listen):

Here at Path, we believe that money is one of the last big taboos still facing women. By not talking about money and not asking the right questions about what our money is doing, we are inadvertently giving up control.

This can affect women in all sorts of ways and at every stage of their life journey – from being poorer at retirement, or after another significant life event such as having children, splitting up with their partner or leaving their job.

Our Financial Planner and Head of Paraplanning, Casey Goodwin, took part in a session at WOW on ‘financial choice, power and freedom’ which included WOW Founder Jude Kelly. The session shone a spotlight on how women can be five times poorer when it comes to retirement than men.

This session, and our conversations with women at WOW really highlighted to us the importance of talking about our finances. And not just through providing information and advice, but by listening too.

The team had some wonderful, and often touching, conversations with women, ranging from the anxiety that money can bring, to the power of being financially independent. Artist Julia Miranda brought these conversations to life in a beautiful piece of artwork (which you can see below), while other attendees were able to feel empowered by simply noting down pledges to themselves, the planet and future generations on our UN SDG tree’s seed paper leaves.

There’s still work to be done:

The Gender Pay Gap is currently 15.4% and women’s pension savings are on average 11% smaller by retirement than policies held by men.

Whilst we’re proud to be talking to women about taking control and aligning their finances with their values, we’re conscious that there’s much more work to be done to address this inequality.

We’re looking forward to continuing the conversation and will be doing more to raise awareness and develop initiatives to continue our work in supporting gender equality, both in society, and in the finance industry too.

That’s why you’ll see us at more events such as WOW, talking about money and asking more women to start a conversation with us – and also with their female friends – about their finances.

Watch this space!

In the meantime, visit our dedicated Path Women page.