Why don’t many women invest in crypto? Chantelle de la Rey explains

It’s been exciting to see a rise in women investing in cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin. But there’s still an incredible imbalance with men dominating the fintech space. As a specialist in the field, I am often asked why this is. 

Before answering this question, I like to ask them why they, as a female, haven’t themselves entered the Bitcoin or digital-currency space? Answers are usually along the lines of:

• ‘I don’t know where to start”;
• ‘It doesn’t interest me’;
• ‘Too volatile’;
• ‘I heard it was a scam?’;
• ‘What are digital currencies?;
• ‘What is Bitcoin? I haven’t heard of it’; and
• ‘It’s too late, I have missed the boat. The hype is over.’

None of these answers are necessarily wrong, but many of these concerns stem from a lack of knowledge about digital currencies or how the financial system works. Plus, to make it more confusing, there is a lot of misleading information. Learning something new takes time, effort and discipline. But that still doesn’t explain why women are being left out of the crypto investment because there’s no single reason.

According to new data from eToro only 15% of Bitcoin investors are female. This highlights an enormous gender imbalance in the world of cryptocurrency. But there are more men in the finance and economics industries in general. In comparison, women dominate the arts and education industries. The fact that the fintech industry is male-dominated isn’t an excuse not to invest in crypto; it’s a lazy cop-out.  

Women have an incredible opportunity in the fintech space to create financial abundance, boost their self-confidence and find their own independence. But, I believe women are not investing in cryptocurrency as much as men for a number of reasons.

High complexity

As I mentioned previously, learning to invest in cryptocurrency is complicated. Many women are already juggling a career, family and their personal wellbeing. They simply feel they can’t take the time to learn and enter a new space. 

Additionally, women usually want to take the time to try to understand something before jumping in. Therefore, they want to dedicate more time to learning about it. On the other hand, some men are more willing to wing it, and therefore also often lose larger amounts of money. 

Lack of interest

Put simply, if more females were interested, there would be more females investing. I don’t think we would hold back this much due to it being ‘male-dominated’.

There has to be something that connects with someone to drive interest, particularly if it’s a complex new area. You can’t just force upon someone or expect them to move into a space because it’s imbalanced by the measure of ‘gender’. And if they did, they would probably burn out pretty quickly since their motivation is not truly aligned. 

Low exposure

Many people haven’t had enough exposure to cryptocurrency. Usually, people have heard about Bitcoin but not participated because it’s not something that’s spoken about every day.

Risk adversity

Females are biologically more risk averse than males when it comes to financial decision-making. We take time to make sure we get things right, we reflect on our mistakes, and we even tend to learn from the mistakes men around us make. 

The trend is slowly changing as more women become interested in fintech. My number one piece of advice is that if you’re interested, you should get involved. Do not let your gender play a role in the decision. 

Why haven’t you invested in crypto? Leave a comment below or message me on social media.