Starling Bank questions the way women are pictured with money

In a new campaign launched by challenger Starling Bank the company wants to point out that women are not represented respectfully in terms of their depiction with money.

While men are often photographed with notes, women are more likely to be seen with pennies and piggy banks.

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This infantilisation is most evident in images of women enthusiastically placing their money in, or even hugging, piggy banks or savings jars (in 24% of images of women, compared to 8% for men).

Men are mostly shown with notes (53% compared to 44%), while women are more likely to be pictured with coins, often pennies (25% compared to 13%).

Stock photos also very often infantilises or mischaracterises women’s relationship with money. This result comes from a research provided by Starling Bank and Brunel University.

The researchers concluded that this representation has genuine consequences, not only negatively impacting how women are treated when it comes to finance, but also how they feel about themselves and their capabilities with money.

Anne Boden, founder and CEO of Starling Bank, said: “We began our Make Money Equal campaign three years ago, looking at the discrepancy in the language used when women and men are spoken to about money in the media.”

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“Today, we’re looking at the imagery that is used on thousands of websites and in printed media which has revealed some very stark inequalities in how women are represented with money compared to men,” she added.

“We need fewer piggy banks and pennies, more instances of women taking the lead, and greater diversity overall,” the CEO said.

Professor Shireen Kaji from Brunel, who co-authored the report, added: “These depictions really matter. They negatively affect not only how people are treated, but also how they feel about themselves in terms of money, which is typically used to symbolise power, influence and freedom.”

To accelerate some improvement, Starling teamed up with Lensi Photography. Together they are about to create a new image library here of 100 royalty-free photographs for anyone to use that better represent woman and money.