{"id":42718,"date":"2023-07-31T16:38:34","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T20:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/news\/barbie-beyonce-and-taylor-swift-and-the-rising-power-of-the-female-dollar\/"},"modified":"2023-07-31T16:38:36","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T20:38:36","slug":"barbie-beyonce-and-taylor-swift-and-the-rising-power-of-the-female-dollar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=42718","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Barbie,\u2019 Beyonc\u00e9 and Taylor Swift and the rising power of \u2018the female dollar\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
Three female icons are driving the cultural conversation this summer and shining a spotlight on a rising star of the U.S. economy: the female consumer.<\/p>\n
Spending by Beyonc\u00e9 fans has affected inflation in two countries. Demand for Taylor Swift tickets has broken records. And \u201cBarbie\u201d made $337 million globally in its opening weekend \u2014 the most ever for a movie directed by a woman. Appetite for content centered around women appears to be growing on a global level too, with the Women\u2019s World Cup breaking ticket sales and TV viewership records.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Does all that mean women in the U.S. have shaken off the pandemic and the so-called shecession that knocked millions of them out of the workforce?<\/p>\n
This summer\u2019s female-driven spending is a discernible economic trend that deserves to be noted, said economist Misty Heggeness, who is writing a book called \u201cSwiftynomics: Women in Today\u2019s Economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnybody who has ever undervalued the female purse, coming out of this summer, they are going to really rethink their methodology,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u2018Is this how men have always felt?\u2019<\/h2>\n
Media coverage of Swift\u2019s effect on local economies has prompted jokes that the singer is single-handedly saving the U.S. from a recession. But Heggeness says it\u2019s time to reframe that story. \u201cThe moment that we\u2019re in right now \u2014 which I cheekily term Swiftynomics \u2014 is not specifically a story about Taylor Swift,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a\u00a0 story about women\u2019s acceleration of economic power.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notably, Swifties are willing to break their own concert budgets, spending $1,327.74 on average to see Eras shows \u2014 which is $720 more than they planned to spend on the experience, according to QuestionPro, a company that creates online surveys. And Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s Philadelphia tour stop led to a surge of interest in local restaurants, hotels, town cars and beauty services, especially nail technicians, according to Yelp, which tracks consumers\u2019 searches for certain types of businesses, although it doesn\u2019t capture whether they actually spend money.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bank of America \n BAC, \n +0.31%<\/bg-quote>,<\/span> \n meanwhile, said increased spending on entertainment and clothing was \u201clikely partially driven by the release of the much-anticipated movies, Barbie and Oppenheimer,\u201d CNN reported.<\/p>\n
The bonanza of female-centered entertainment has made this summer \u201can amazing time to be a woman,\u201d said Heggeness. \u201cWe are just inundated with all of this super-amazing content and stories that really talk about us in all of our realities. It\u2019s like, \u2018Is this how men have always felt?’\u201d<\/p>\n
The popularity of \u201cBarbie,\u201d Beyonc\u00e9 and Swift speaks to women\u2019s desire to make decisions about spending that are based on \u201cfair representation, equity and inclusivity,\u201d said Mara Klaunig, a senior analyst at Camoin Associates who has studied the impact Swift concerts have on local economies. \u201cThe female audience really wants to feel heard and to be respected,\u201d Klaunig said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This summer\u2019s concerts and movies have also given audiences a chance to cut loose, do some post-pandemic revenge spending and indulge in nostalgia, Klaunig said. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone through some hard years,\u201d she said. \u201cWe keep on hearing about an impending recession and there\u2019s this backlash that\u2019s happening to all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n \u201c<\/span> \u2018Barbie is in the moment right now, but the female dollar has been marching toward this place for a very long time.\u2019 \u201d<\/span>\n <\/p>\n
\n \u2014 Monique Woodard, founder of Cake Ventures<\/span> \n <\/small><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
At the same time, women may be better positioned than ever to flex their financial strength. There are a record number of women in the U.S. labor force, surpassing prepandemic levels, and the unemployment rate among women is at an all-time low of 3.4%, said Denise Moulton, human capital insights leader at Deloitte Consulting. Moulton attended Swift\u2019s rain-soaked three-and-a-half-hour show in Foxborough, Mass., with her daughter in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese shows, movies and fanfare aren\u2019t just about young girls celebrating their idols and donning sparkles and glitter,\u201d Moulton said. \u201cThese experiences celebrate individuality. They create a safe space to have fun and be uniquely you, and they transcend gender and age. There is so much power in consumers\u2019 dedication and love for these artists, and the purse is willing to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fall may bring shifting priorities<\/h2>\n
This summer, U.S. consumers across the board are also reporting improved financial well-being, with fewer saying they\u2019re worried about their savings or about their financial situation worsening, according to Deloitte\u2019s latest survey.<\/p>\n
But there is a seasonal aspect to the current spending trend. Summer provides opportunities to spend on experiences like concerts, movies and travel, but come fall, new responsibilities may arrive, along with financial pressures that women in particular feel, such as back-to-school shopping and childcare, the search for which peaks in August, according to Care.com. And student-loan payments \u2014 a burden that has an outsize effect on women, especially Black women \u2014 are slated to resume in October.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir priorities are certainly going to be shifting,\u201d Klaunig said of women consumers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bigger than \u2018Barbie\u2019<\/h2>\n
Some observers say the success of \u201cBarbie\u201d isn\u2019t necessarily groundbreaking, because Hollywood seems to rediscover female audiences every few years and then promptly forget about that half of the population. But venture capitalist Monique Woodard believes the smart money is on companies centered around women that serve what she calls the \u201ctrillion-dollar female economy.\u201d Woodard founded Cake Ventures, a $17 million venture fund that invests in companies that focus on three groups that are increasing in size and, in some cases, spending power: older people, people of color, and women.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Along with the \u201cBarbie\u201d juggernaut, there are a number of other female-focused economic success stories right now, Woodard told MarketWatch. Kim Kardashian\u2019s shapewear company, Skims, was recently valued at $4 billion, and Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein just filed for an initial public offering and is valued at more than $60 billion, \u201clargely on the backs of young female consumers,\u201d Woodard said. And while it\u2019s easy to assume that fashion and beauty are the sectors where women prefer to spend their money, they\u2019re also signing mortgages, buying homes on their own and spending on financial services and healthcare, especially telehealth services, something that helped drive virtual-healthcare company Teladoc \n TDOC, \n +5.34%<\/bg-quote> \n to a multibillion-dollar market capitalization, Woodard noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These shifts are partly driven by the fact that women are earning more \u2014 the gender pay gap fell to an all-time low this summer, Axios reported \u2014 with many becoming their family\u2019s primary breadwinner as they attain more education. Although college enrollment is declining, men account for 71% of that decline, Woodard said in a white paper on women\u2019s spending power. If that trend continues, women will soon be earning two out of every three new college degrees, she noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely think we are at a really important inflection point,\u201d Woodard said. \u201cBarbie is in the moment right now, but the female dollar has been marching toward this place for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
And although women as a group are dominating pop culture this summer, it\u2019s not always the same women: The audiences for \u201cBarbie,\u201d Beyonc\u00e9 and Taylor Swift each skew differently in terms of race, age, gender and sexual identity. \u201cWomen are not a monolith,\u201d Woodard said. \u201cIt\u2019s extremely exciting to be able to see all of these different types of women coming into their economic power and influence all at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n