Ongoing cultural change: Women becoming investors - A qualitative interview study on female investors and sustainable investing

Abstract

This research studied the experiences and mindset of young female investors, in order to find out how they have become investors and what influences and motivations were behind their actions. In addition, attitudes towards sustainability and sustainable investing were studied. The aim of this research was to study the ongoing cultural change and phenomenon of women's increased investment activity and factors related to it as well as the perceived importance of sustainability in investing. This qualitative research was conducted using semi-structured interviews. The selected informants were in the age bracket of 18-30, and seven interviews were carried out in the beginning of 2022. The following two research questions were answered: How does a woman become an investor in Finland? and Is sustainability a consideration for Finnish women when they make investment decisions and if yes, in what ways? Data was analysed thematically using code-aggregation method. The results revealed that main factors behind this phenomenon were social influence from environment, identity, financial security, cultural change, and sustainable actions. Sustainability meant different things to the respondent, and attitudes towards sustainable investing varied, but a collective perception was that profit is the result of responsible actions in the long term. There is relatively little scientific research done around the topics, so additional research was justified. As the studied concepts are broad and comprehensive, all aspects could not be studied in this research. This time-bound research was conducted during the academic year of 2021-2022.