By Jess Sharp, Money blogger

Strippers, mistresses and damsels in distress – that’s how women have been depicted in some of the most successful finance films of the past decade.

You only have to look at the Wolf of Wall Street as an example.

While it’s a huge hit, reportedly making £407m at the box office, its impact on women’s financial success isn’t as positive.

The gender investment gap – the difference between investments held by men and women – stands at £567bn and is growing, with new research finding on-screen stereotypes are part of the reason why. 

Experts at King’s Business School analysed major films and TV shows about finance from the past 15 years, and found none of them featured a successful female chief executive.

In fact, only 24% of the films looked at portrayed women in any sort of lead financial position.

Dr Ylva Baeckstrom, who led the research, has warned that on-screen depictions could have a “disastrous impact on society”. 

And when you have a look at the financial statistics, you can see why she is concerned.

Men save £1,512 more than women every year in the UK, according to Female Invest, and they are twice as likely to have stocks and shares ISAs.

By the time they retire, men have around 35% more in their pension pots, the Department for Work and Pensions has found, while women are still earning 14.8% less than their male counterparts.

“We all know that women earn less, invest less, yet live longer than men and therefore have an even greater need to build wealth to secure their futures,” Dr Baeckstrom said.

“It has been proven that what we watch on screen affects our attitudes and influences our behaviour. The misrepresentation of finance and investing as a pursuit for alpha males and the lack of female role models are perpetuating the gender investment gap.”

Of the films Dr Baeckstrom looked at, nearly three quarters of women had roles such as wives, partners and assistants.

In those that did feature women in lead roles, the characters were often portrayed as more junior and less competent. 

In the 2022 film Trader, one of the few analysed that has a female lead, the main character is presented as an unstable drug user.

Women tend to come across as more empathetic and analytical too, the research found, while men were portrayed as authoritative and dominant.

Female characters also experienced more discriminatory behaviour by men (83%), with that rising to 90% when the discrimination was specifically related to financial subjects. 

“We observed a slight improvement over the past 15 years, with films such as Fair Play and more recent episodes of Billions introducing stronger women in roles that highlight their capabilities, struggles and complexity,” Dr Baeckstrom said. 

“Movies have the power to demonstrate the reality that investing is for everyone, regardless of gender and background, Ordinary people, including women need to be inspired and encouraged, not excluded or disrespected.” 

‘It’s a bit of an old boys’ club’

One of the people trying to do that is financial adviser, author and influencer Bola Sol. 

With nearly 36,000 Instagram followers, she aims to help women take control of their finances and invest in their own future. 

Having investments can give people a better financial outlook and in some cases help them retire earlier, she said, but learning about them is a conversation that many women are excluded from. 

“Those who do have investments just have a better buffer and horizon for the future,” she told Money. 

“As someone who has worked in the financial industry for a decade now, naturally I don’t see as many women in the corporate world as I see men and I find that more often than not women haven’t always been included in the conversation as a main character. 

“It’s a bit of an old boys’ club and I feel like I have been saying that for years. 

“In a world where through many gender pay gaps, investment gaps, pension gaps, women have fallen through the cracks and it’s like we are trying to keep up. We have to prioritise ourselves.” 

In a bid to combat the gender imbalance when it comes to investments, trading platform eToro is aiming to promote healthy and honest discussions about money. 

Their Loud Investment campaign is encouraging women to speak to their friends about investing in the hope it spurs them on to do the same. 

“As a white, middle-aged man who works in finance, this isn’t the most comfortable of topics for me to address. Yet, that’s why it is so important,” said eToro’s managing director Dan Moczulski. 

“On-screen depictions are created to entertain, yet they have real-life consequence if we are not actively challenging the stereotypes they perpetuate.”