Innovation for Women

Women manage an estimated $32 trillion in annual spending and are projected to control 75 per cent of discretionary spending within the next five years.

- Alex Friedman, Trish Stroman

Yet across nearly every industry, most products fall short of meeting their needs, reflecting a tacit assumption that women are somehow a niche market.For decades, companies have relied on superficial gestures: pink packaging, token “female-friendly” campaigns, and even the so-called pink tax, whereby women are charged more for the same product. Many of these “personalized” offerings amount to little more than marketing in disguise.

The result is a persistent gap between what women need and what companies deliver. Closing it requires designing products and services that reflect women’s priorities, decisions, careers, and lived experiences.

Historically, women have been expected to adapt to systems and services that were not built with them in mind. The evidence is everywhere: personal protective equipment is rarely made to fit, smartphones tend to be too large for smaller hands, and voice assistants consistently fail to recognize female voices. When male data are used as the benchmark for what's considered “normal,” women are underserved, and entire markets remain underdeveloped.

This oversight represents one of today’s largest untapped growth opportunities. Consider financial services: women add $5 trillion to the global wealth pool each year, but products still cater to men’s earning patterns and priorities. Despite managing a greater share of household budgets, women are up to eight percentage points less likely than men to feel financially skilled. Products that account for caregiving breaks, pay gaps, and longer lifespans could generate billions in value while improving women’s financial security.