It’s (supposed to be) the most wonderful time of the year! And yes, of course, we get to spend time with family and friends making memories that will last us a lifetime, but that’s also a ton of pressure. And as the data proved to us this month, that pressure exists stronger for women than it does men.
And 71% of people who feel supported by their community say they experience stress less than those who do not feel supported – Meta-Gallup, 2022
If there’s anything we take away from this data story, it’s how important it is to check in on the women in your life this time of year. Send her a note of appreciation. Lend her a hand. Give her a foot massage. Or just tell her you care, and that she’s doing great. Perhaps if we all leaned into a small act of kindness for the women we love, we can up that first data point so MORE than just 27% of women can relax over the holidays this time of year. Happy holidays, all!
Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so we did a little digging this month into how Americans celebrate the upcoming holiday. What we ended up unpacking were gender gaps around roles and responsibilities when it comes to the Thanksgiving meal. That little rabbit hole then led us to uncover not only a gender gap in holiday cooking, but meal prep in year round.
82% of Americans say they will be celebrating Thanksgiving with a home-cooked meal – YouGov, 2021
And 48% of women say they do all or most of the Thanksgiving cooking, only 24% of men say the same – YouGov, 2021
Yet, 4.7 more meals, on average per week, are cooked by women than men worldwide – Gallup, 2023
And 80% of women do most of the grocery shopping in households where a partner/spouse and children are present – Capital One, 2023
These gaps, alone, standout, but when we look at them alongside other data points – such as women making up 47% of the US civilian labor force in 2023, up from 30% in 1950 (Pew Research) and women often spending 10x more time than men on unpaid care, volunteer, and domestic work (Men Care) – it really starts to amplify the gender gaps around something as finite as a Thanksgiving Day meal. To all the women already planning that feast, know you are seen and valued. And to all those supporting women planning that feast, know that 62% of them say the most stressful part of the meal is the clean-up… please lend a hand! Enjoy the holiday, all.
This month’s Pin•Points That Matter got us talking about women’s health – specifically perimenopause and menopause. The fact that, as we write this, ‘perimenopause’ is being identified as a misspelled or non-existent word by our computer pretty much says it all. However, more than ever, women are sharing their experiences and helping breaking down stigmas across their societal circles, community groups, and workplace. That being said, we still have quite a ways to do as depicted in this month’s data story:
63% of post-menopausal women found menopause to be difficult, describing their experience as a ‘nightmare’ and ‘awful’ – Post Reproductive Health, 2021
And 64% of women say they want menopause-specific benefits from their employers (in a similar function to maternity benefits) – Bank of America, 2023
Yet only, 14% of women believe their employer recognizes the need for menopause-specific benefits – Bank of America, 2023
And to make it worse, 48% of women believe menopausal women are seen as less productive or emotionally stable in the workplace – Bonafide, 2024
Considering over 1 million more women enter menopause each year and as of April 2024, women comprise 51% of the workforce in the United States, there has never been a better time to remove the stigma around menopause and start showing up for women’s health. At PinPoint, we’re all in – are you with us?
This month’s ‘Pin•Points That Matter’ even caught our women-owned, women-run team a bit off guard. However, when we put ourselves back in the shoes of our own teenage selves, the sentiments game flowing back:
76% of teens in the US think we are taught more about the biology of frogs than the biology of the human female body in school – Thinx + PERIOD, 2020
And 65% of teen girls believe society teaches people to be ashamed of their periods – Thinx + PERIOD, 2020
Yet, 98% of girls get their period before they turn 15 years old – Mayo Clinic, 2023
And 4 out of 5 teen girls either missed or knew someone who missed class time because they did not have access to period products – Unesco, 2014
The story is telling. Despite girls in the US getting their first menstrual period about 6 months earlier on average than they did in the 1950s and ’60s (NPR, 2024), girls today feel a lack of support, comfort, and education at a pivotal moment in their early years. This has led to teen girls feeling the need to miss class during their period, feeling of shame when that time of the month rolls around, and feeling like they aren’t as important as… well frogs in science class. Society – we have a ways to go in supporting our youth and empowering them to be women in this world. It’s time.
In this month’s Pin•Points That Matter, our team explored what it’s like to be a woman fan in the sports world today. Having come from a sports & entertainment background, our founders are beyond passionate about the intersection of women consumers and the future of sports. So here we are, exploring some hard facts on the subject:
84% of women sports fans watched a sporting event on TV in the last year (pretty great number!) – Deloitte, 2023
And 80% of all sports apparel is purchased by women (also, incredible statistic) – Holland, 2013
Yet, 75% of women dislike ‘pink, glitter, or differing cuts’ for women’s fan attire (you know the kind) – Esler, 2021
And only 59% of women sports fans attended a sporting event in person last year, compared to 84% watching on TV – Deloitte, 2023
In all of our digging, what we couldn’t unpack (even close) was why the disparities. Why are so many women watching sports on TV but not necessarily going to a game in person? And why, when so many women are the ones purchasing sports attire, is the industry still “pinking and shrinking” the women’s line? If there’s anyone committed to discovering that why and finding ways for the industry to do better, it’s PinPoint. Let’s get our hands dirty.
This month, we couldn’t help but explore the representation of women across media in our Pin•Points That Matter. We’re an eclectic mix of women, yet none of us truly felt like we were authentically depicted across most brands out there – and we interact with a lot of brands! So we put on our detective hats and uncovered we weren’t the only ones.
89% of women claim responsibility for daily household shopping – Capital One, 2023
And 76% of women are more likely to buy from brands that feature people who look like them – AARP, 2023
Yet, 51% of women between 18-49 years old say they rarely or never see themselves in media at large – AARP, 2023
And only 20% of women in all age brackets feel women over the age of 50 are positively portrayed in advertising – AARP, 2022
This data shows us that the people most responsible for daily shopping are perhaps the least represented by the brands they are shopping from. And that’s a problem! Especially when we know women are more likely to purchase from companies that share their values and speak to their needs. Hence the importance of deeply understanding who your customer is and rolling up your sleeves to find out. Fun fact: there’s no one who likes to roll those sleeves up more when it comes to learning about women than the PinPoint crew!
In this month’s Pin•Points That Matter, we’re exploring women’s wealth. What we found was, well, quite the dichotomy to say the least. We were shocked by the story this data revealed, but also not surprised:
As of 2023, women are directly or indirectly responsible for 80% of all consumer purchasing decisions – Capital One, 2023
And over the next 20 years, women will inherit up to $128 trillion in what’s being called the Great Wealth Transfer – Ellevest Women and Wealth Survey, 2024
And only 48% of women are confident about their finances, even less so only 28% feel empowered to act – Bank of America, 2022
This data tells us that it’s crucial to listen to and prioritize women in consumer purchasing decisions. Companies that fail to do so will risk significant harm to their brand, no matter what industry they fall into. From real estate to sports & entertainment to pet supplies and RTD beverages – no matter what industry you fall into, the data is shows a need to listen to your female audience. Now’s the time to uncover what they need from a brand, a fan experience, a pet store, or an RTD package design. Who’s ready!?
May is Women’s Health Month, but April sure did bring a lot of health care chatter to our PinPoint world (hence the Pin•Points That Matter post below). What’s fascinated us in these conversations is how often the caregiver keeps making her way to the focus.
That being said, it shouldn’t be all that surprising. Just within the past year, 43.5 million caregivers have provided unpaid care to an adult or child. And of those 43.5 million, 75% are women and may spend as much as 50% more time providing care than men. If we dive even deeper, studies have indicated that 36% of female caregivers handle the most difficult caregiving tasks (i.e., bathing, toileting, and dressing).That’s compared with 24% for their male counterparts, who are more likely to help with finances, arrangement of care, and other less burdensome tasks.
Maybe There’s a Better Way
We know, we know… we talk a lot about gender disparities.But when it comes down to understanding the whole human – whether we’re helping a client design a new banking function or the future of their community library – unpacking these behaviors makes a big difference..
Here’s an example. We’re designing that library for a community whose primary patron is a mother. We learn in research that she takes care of her own small children and her aging parent. That means we might not design the library as a place to linger. This mother has a lot on her plate.Quite honestly, she may not even be able to think about getting out of her car because of the time and effort that one task alone might take. This library needs to function more like a drive thru or a pick-up locker at Target. Perhaps it’s even an intimate, calming escape where she can read in solitude away from her caregiving duties at home.
Experience Empathy
One of the most profound activities we’ve done within the healthcare space is what we call an Empathy Experience Workshop (Bonus, this practice can be applied to any industry.) We bring together internal leaders to experience firsthand what it’s like to live a day-in-the-life of their patient and caregiver – a way to build empathy at its deepest level. It looks and feels a bit like role playing, but with unexpected twists and turns:
The group divides into pairs
One team member takes on the role of the patient
The other their caregiver
We go out into the real world (ie. a grocery store)
Each is instructed to perform tasks and carry out specific behaviors in this public venue
The patient may unexpectedly drop a gallon of milk in the middle of the store. (Yes, this actually happened!)
The caregiver has to respond with onlookers at the fringe.
Or mid-aisle, the caregiver may suddenly abandon the patient (with eyes closed to resemble blindness) to take an unanticipated, but urgent,call.
These small, dynamic moments, when experienced firsthand, build a level of empathy that goes far beyond listening to a caregiver speak, watching a patient testimonial, or describing a ‘Betty’ persona out of a static deck.
Empathy in Action
We live for this type of work. With data like the above pointing to the need for caregiver-centric design in healthcare, there is no better time than now to build new levels of empathy – and show up for women where they need it most. Whether you are a caregiver, a patient, a healthcare leader, or know someone (in any industry!) looking to build empathy in a memorable way, please reach out. These experiences matter. They forever change the way we see the world through someone else’s eyes. We want nothing more than to share those perspectives over our go-to cup of coffee.
Women’s health has been a hot topic around our office this month, so we spent some time digging in to unpack the gender disparities between men and women in this space. Of course we knew there would be some shocking statistics out there, but what we learned was even more surprising than we anticipated.
Women spend 25% more of their lives in debilitating health than men, and are under diagnosed for certain conditions – Harvard Health Publishing, 2019 Women spend 11% of their income after tax on healthcare, compared to men who spend only 7% – Capital One, 2023 Women of all ages pay a total of $15.4 billion more than men on annual out-of-pocket medical expenses. In 2021, that meant women paid about 20% more than men and only 2% of which could be accounted for by maternity care – Deloitte, 2023 Yet, women weren’t included in clinic trials until 1993 – National Institutes of Health And a survey of medical residents found that 58% had received one lecture on menopause in their training and 20% had received no menopause training whatsoever – Mayo Clinic, 2019
This is the kind of information that makes us want nothing more than to dig in and understand not only the WHY, but what how this is affecting the 169 million women in our country. If you, too, are interested in the state of women’s health and looking for someone to share all the feels with, let’s grab a cup of coffee.
It’s a special month for us at PinPoint – International Women’s Month celebrating both International Women’s Day on March 8th and Women’s History Month. So, for this month in ‘Data That Matters’, we decided to look at some facts associated with women-owned businesses!
We always knew there were gender gaps in business ownership and subsequent finances, but the numbers were even more astounding than we anticipated.
Long story short, there are still a lot of challenges women have to face as business owners in the United States. Yet, us women owners have the potential to transform the economy and our society. The more these facts are shared, and known, the more our society can progress as a whole.
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