A stagnant gender pay gap, a newly identified ‘divorce tax’ preventing women from owning a home, and gender superannuation imbalances are motiving more females to fight back about financial inequality.
Propell Property Partnerships Director and Leading Lady of InvestHer Karen Lacheta-Pell said the renewed focus on female financial inequality over recent years had inspired her to help as many women as possible.
“There continues to be more information being released that highlights the fact that women are perpetually being left behind, not only in their overall financial outcomes, but also when it comes to property ownership – especially after separation or divorce,” she said.
“It is a goal of mine to help as many women as possible become – and stay – property owners throughout the many ups and downs that we all experience during our lifetimes.”
According to a recent Victorian parliamentary inquiry, only about 34 per cent of women who separate manage to own a home within five years and only 44 per cent do so within 10 years, with stamp duty a major reason why.
Divorced women were also three times more likely to rent at age 65 than married women, the inquiry found.
Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA) Chair and co-author of The Female Investor – Creating Wealth, Security, & Freedom Through Property Nicola McDougall said publicity surrounding the gender pay – and superannuation – gaps was starting to hit home for women of all ages.
“When we released our book last year, we did get push back from some people who questioned why it was written specifically for women, which was annoying but, alas, not surprising,” Ms McDougall said.
“The reasons we wrote the book for women was because of the lack of female voices and authors in the property investment space, but also because only 27 per cent of women identify as investors – and now we have learned that if a woman gets divorced, she has less than a 50/50 chance of continuing to be a homeowner – which is appalling.”
Real Estate Institute of Queensland CEO Antonia Mercorella, who with Ms McDougall will speak at a special InvestHer event in Brisbane in July, said gender pay figures hid the stark reality of poorer financial results for women throughout their lives.
“According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Australia’s national gender pay gap is 13.3 per cent – similar to what it was three years ago,” Ms Mercorella said.
“To put this into perspective, women are earning on average about $253.50 less per week than men, which over the course of a year adds up to about $13,000.
“Over a decade, the gender pay gap may mean that women are more than $131,000 worse off than men financially with that figure rising to more than a quarter a million dollars over 20 years.”