Financial services love to say they want to reach women. So Why Are They Still Talking to Men??
The industry loves to tout its inclusivity. Banks, fintechs, wealth platforms—they all say the right things. They publish stats about the growing influence of female investors. They nod toward “empowering women.”
And yet—when it comes time to craft the campaign, shape the product, or build the brand—it still feels like they’re talking to men.
Why? Because somewhere deep in the brand DNA is the assumption that credibility, sophistication, and cool live on the male side of the spectrum. That if you want to signal power, you default to a voice he’ll recognize. And hopefully she’ll catch on.
It’s not just outdated. It’s lazy. And expensive.
How to market to women without pissing them off.
Women have plenty to be pissed off about right now—your brand shouldn’t be one of them.
In 2025, too many campaigns still rely on stereotypes, euphemisms, and half-baked empowerment slogans that miss the mark. Women notice when you get it right. And they really notice when you don’t. So how do you market to women without pissing them off? Start here.
Where Have All the Women Gone?
We cannot accurately portray women of any age without hearing and seeing them. Advertisers must seek to understand women, commit to accurate representation, and then roll up their sleeves and do the work.
As our research revealed, women over 40 are thriving. They feel wiser, sexier, more confident, more powerful, more energized, and, paradoxically, younger than ever before, and yet they do not see their experience in ads. Often, ads targeting them focus on products for aging, slowing down, or desperately seeking ways to look and feel younger.
Gender Stereotypes Advertising Needs to Ditch
Women are ready for something new, something fresh, and something relatable. The 600 women who participated in our attitudinal segmentation research and the insights we learned from them can help us advertisers usher in a new stereotype-free era.
Ending Gender Discrimination in Advertising
To advertise to women effectively, you need to understand their context. For many women, discrimination and gender disparities are realities they’ve faced and continue to face. These experiences are sources of pain, stress and are part of their daily lives. Advertising is more effective when it solves a problem, and many women have a big problem at work, at home, and just living in society.
It’s not over.
Yesterday I wanted to celebrate the one day that the world pays a little more attention to women. I really did. But then I thought about how very far we have to go to achieve equality. And how despite some gains in some areas basic rights are being stripped from women. Around the world and here at home.
Marketers are more obsessed with our looks than we are
How much of our lives has been spent on living up to impossible beauty standards? Standards created by the media, the patriarchy, and yes, advertising. Global ad spend in the beauty category continues to grow, but who’s really paying attention? Who is absorbing the nonstop barrage of content messaging and predetermined ideals? Apparently not women over 40.
Something to think about:
Women over 40 see themselves presented in very specific roles, if at all. Many of the women we surveyed said that outside of anti-aging and pharmaceutical ads they really didn’t see anyone their age, and even those women didn’t reflect the way our respondents see themselves. Which, in case you’re wondering, is pretty awesome.