Women's top financial concern is inflation, Fidelity study finds
Survey found women are more stressed than men over rising prices
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Rising prices are taking a toll on everyone right now, but a new study shows women are feeling the pain more than men – and it is the primary money woe keeping ladies up at night.
Research from Fidelity Investments found that inflation is currently the top financial concern for U.S. women, with upwards of 70% citing it as their main worry. Respondents listed the costs of essentials as the second-biggest stressor (65%), and another 58% expressed worries about not having enough saved for emergencies.
"We know inflation is a top of mind concern for nearly everyone in this economy, given inflation is at a 40-year-high," said Loran Kapusta, Fidelity's head of women investors and customers engagement. "Gender does seem to play a small role in the personal impact the rising costs have—women are more stressed about inflation than men, 71% vs. 66% respectively."
A woman pushes a shopping cart through the grocery aisle at Target in Annapolis, Maryland. Inflation is women's top financial concern (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The study found there were differences in the concerns voiced by younger women than as a whole, too.
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A woman shops at the Dollar Tree store in Alhambra, California. Several months of elevated inflation has caused consumers to adjust their spending habits and cut back on discretionary purchases. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Gen Z women, ages 18 to 25 told researchers their top concerns were the cost of education (55%), managing debt and credit (27%) and not knowing how to invest (46%).
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Nearly half of women (47%) said their outlook on money and the economy has gotten worse over the past year, and 53% responded that they have scaled back on discretionary purchases since 2021.
Miami Florida, Winn-Dixie grocery store customers using self-service checkout. More than half of women say they have scaled back on purchasing non-essential items over the past year as inflation remains near a 40-year high. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images / Getty Images)
"Women proactively took matters into their hands, with more than half of women cutting back on non-essential expenses in the past year," Kapusta said.
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"They also plan to pay down debt and start or add to an emergency fund in the next year," she noted, adding, "All of these actions are great strides forward."