The ‘girly’ voice used in Women’s financial education online – What’s going on here?

By
Hayley Gregor
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0
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  1. Poosh – https://poosh.com/why-financial-literacy-is-important-for-women/
  2. FIC – Finance is Cool educational finance course for women- https://www.financeiscool.com/
  3. Clever girl finance https://www.clevergirlfinance.com/
  4. Savvy Ladies https://www.savvyladies.org/

I am interesting in the voices used in financial education products. So far, I’ve only seen:

  • Women’s financial products using a girly voice, baby voice, sorority girl voice. Hyper-feminine personality. (see top four links)
  • Women’s financial products with zero voice or personality, but with women in the mission.
  • Neutral financial products, zero voice or personality. Using as little visual branding or imagery as possible. (Like Robinhood).
  • Financial products with a motivational, urgent, or competitive voice, the imagery and visuals are often sporty, sleek, and minimal but eye-catching.
  • Financial products with a masculine voice and aesthetic – imagery of an old man, a moustache, old-fashioned symbols of banks and money (I consider these masculine because of the whole historical social image of banking)

The top four websites I gave are examples of this girly voice, ranging from strongest to weakest. Where does this voice come from? Is this what women relate most to, so they learn best reading in it? Do they feel more comfortable with information that is blatantly feminine? How do ALL women receive information in this tone?

It seems like pretty much all content made just for women use this tactic. The resources for women that do not use it fall into the ‘no voice’ category. Examples of this include Ellevest (https://www.ellevest.com/) and WIFE (https://www.wife.org/). These are tailored to older women, so there is no reason for them to emulate the female-meme/e-network style comedic voice.

How do Gen Z women feel about using financial resources that are separated from men?

Are there other ways to make finance learnable and interesting to young women? do we need other ways?

Yay. Do they think saying yay will really make me more excited to talk about money. Is it working?

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