“The underpinning of the ‘Me Too’ movement is money. Money is power. We will not be fully equal to men until we are financially equal to men,” she said.
When it comes to financial issues, women are infantilized, she said, and yet women are better hedge fund managers than men and better mutual fund managers. Investments controlled by women perform 1 percent better than those controlled by men, which is a huge difference, Krawcheck said.
The entertainment industry has gotten the attention on sexual harassment, but “our own business is the worst,” she declared. “Men are making much more money than women and the power dynamic is off. Men in leadership separate women from each other. If we ask for something as an individual, we do not make a difference. Women coming together make a difference.”
As far as female clients are concerned, they have to be persuaded to invest, she said. Women hold 71 percent of their money in cash, which can cost them $1 million in lost returns over a lifetime.
“The gender investing gap can cost women life-changing amounts of money,” she said.
On all of the diversity issues, “the first step is to talk about it,” Krawcheck urged.