Narrowing Gender Pay and Power Gaps Could Boost Growth, Markets

In the U.K., private and public companies with more than 250 employees are required to report, since last year, the difference between men and women's hourly pay rate, bonus pay, and their percentages in each quartile of pay band.

In the U.S., an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rule was expanded in 2016 to require companies to include pay data by gender and race for companies with at least 100 employees. The Trump administration blocked its implementation and a federal district court ruled last week that it must be reinstated, a decision that's likely to be appealed.

Also in the U.S., a growing number of states and cities have passed laws or regulations that ban prospective employers from asking applicants about their pay history, and momentum is building for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment by the states.

Women in Arizona are planning three days of marches to sway state legislators to pass the ERA, which would bring the total number of states in favor to 38, just topping the required three-quarters needed for passage. Even then, legal challenges are expected.

On International Women's Day, more than 83 stock exchanges around the world rang their bells in favor of gender equality, according to Women in ETFs, a nonprofit organization with more than 4,700 members.

The organization, which formed five years ago, is dedicated to expanding connections among women in the ETF industry, and to support and inspire them. Less than a year ago, it introduced a speakers bureau to promote the visibility of of women in the industry, including at the Inside ETFs conference held annually in Hollywood, Florida.

Linda Zhang, the founder and CEO of Purview Investments, an RIA firm, and co-founder of Women in ETFs, tells ThinkAdvisor that the key to closing the "power gap" between men and women rests with hiring, promotion and the pay of women.

In the meantime, the share of women in the U.S. labor force continues to rise and women account for a growing share of income. "It is therefore important to get into the minds of women," Merrill writes in a new report.

Its strategists found that women spend more on health care, food at home and housing than men, average almost an hour more at work and tend to use incremental disposable income to pay down debt.

Advisors serving female clients or having female co-workers may want to keep those gender differences in mind. "Studies have shown time and again that women tend to manage their finances differently than men," according to the BofA Merrill Lynch strategists. "Women tend to be more inclined to reduce debt and are also less optimistic about future income growth."