Men are on average 1.5 times more likely to own crypto than women are. Bitcoin can help women achieve the economic autonomy they require.
Are there more and more women adopting Bitcoin (BTC) in the world? Statistics say yes, although not as much as it should have been. Moreover, are they enjoying the financial and technological literacy that the pioneering cryptocurrency can provide them? The answer is painful: definitely not, much less so in Latin America.
The realm of finance and investment has historically remained male-dominated, and this trend continues today. Even though women have gained ground in these areas, the dominance of the male presence has also seeped into the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention, supposedly created to overcome many of the biases found in the most closed areas of the traditional financial system, unfortunately, has not been able to break down an important barrier: conquering so many women, as it has done with men. This reaches the point that it preserves the gender disparity found in fields such as finance, investment, science, and technology.
A study conducted in 2021 by investment manager Grayscale found that there is a considerable lack of diversity in the ecosystem. This, taking into account that most of the people involved with Bitcoin, in the United States, belong to the male gender.
This fact coincides with global trends, since “globally, men are on average 1.5 times more likely to have cryptocurrencies than women”, as pointed out by the consulting firm Finder in their report.
Barely an average of 41% of cryptocurrency owners around the world are women, while 59% are men, according to data revealed by the pollster in December last year.
The results of the survey carried out in 27 countries showed that, in December 2021, only Malaysia, Norway, Russia, and Venezuela had a higher rate of women among the population that owns cryptocurrencies.
The gender disparity that exists in the world of cryptocurrencies is not very different from that in more traditional investment forms. This, according to a survey published in August 2021. Men dominate investments in exchange-traded funds, individual stocks, mutual funds, real estate, and bonds.
Self-excluded Women from an Ecosystem of Inclusion: A Paradox
Gender disparities have dogged the finance industry for decades, with one of the main barriers being social stereotypes that insist that men have better skills than women do when it comes to finance and economics.
Likewise, women have excluded themselves from the field of cryptocurrencies as it has happened throughout history with other sectors, such as technology, science, and finance. It is a cultural issue since they did not have the same legal and political rights as men and were under the control of fathers and husbands in almost all societies.
Today things are different from how they were 50 years ago, although they are still catching up in their effort to equalize men in all lifestyles, after centuries of exclusion.
Bitcoin, by contrast, is still in its teens, but still shows itself ready to serve the needs of the unbanked.
Bitcoin as an Element of Change
According to an analysis by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean on how to reduce gender inequality gaps in order to achieve development, women are required to achieve economic autonomy. They are also required to become capable of making free and informed decisions about their lives so that they can be and do according to their own aspirations and desires.
However, in the continent, women face limitations arising from unpaid domestic work that, in most cases, does not allow them to carry out other activities outside their family life.
On the other hand, a World Bank report points out that almost 2.4 billion women around the world lack the same economic rights as men.
The study determines that lower access of women in the economy and their little participation in household economic decisions, in the long run, generates a particular impact on human capital investments and therefore on the development of their environments.
Instead, the whole picture takes a turn when women play a fundamental role in family finances, because even “they can help poor children, from difficult places, to get out of poverty,” the document highlights.
What can Bitcoin do for Women, and Women for Cryptocurrency?
Although no monetary invention can eliminate the effects that sexism has historically left behind, Bitcoin today, more than ever, offers a fair and equitable financial system to all women in the world.
For those who remain unbanked, Bitcoin is there waiting to start accumulating wealth and securing their property rights. As soon as they take the first step, they will shed the legacy of disadvantage they inherited and that affected their finances for generations.
Because Bitcoin can be self-custodial, people no longer need to rely solely on banks, institutions, or brokers to manage their own assets. That is something that many women are discovering today, such as Manasi Vora, a journalist from India who discovered Bitcoin in 2016 when the prime minister of her country banned most of the existing banknotes, devaluing them almost overnight.
In her effort to learn more about the ecosystem, Vora attended talks, conferences, and other activities where she used to be one of the few women to attend, against hundreds of men who packed the halls.
“On the one hand, there was this narrative back then that cryptocurrencies would change the financial world. But on the other hand, I was seeing that the Bitcoin ecosystem has the same systemic biases as traditional finance, where there really wasn’t enough diversity,” Vora told the San Francisco Chronicle.
In conclusion, as long as the cryptocurrency ecosystem does not count on the adoption of more and more women, then Bitcoin will have failed as a tool for social and economic justice, which can help underserved communities to develop their own economy through the creation of generational wealth.
By Audy Castaneda
