Skip to Main Content

Strategic Business Insights (SBI) logo

MacroMonitor Market Trends Newsletter February 2020

If you are not a MacroMonitor sponsor but would like more information about this topic, please contact us.

Who Resents Financial-Institution Profits?

One-quarter of US households resent financial-institution profits resulting from their business. In 2018, women (34%) are more likely than men (27%) to resent such profits and have been more likely than men to feel this way since 2000. A comparison of resenters by gender suggests that multiple reasons for resentment are possible; these reasons will likely continue and, in fact, may become more predominant among consumers. Financial institutions may lessen the impact by understanding better the root causes of resentment.

Of resenters, almost one-half (46%) are women age 60 and older; roughly half (53%) of men resenters are younger than age 50. Many women born before 1960 have been on the leading edge of the women's movement. Most remember their inability to buy a home, secure a loan, or obtain a credit card without a male cosigner (Congress outlawed housing and credit discrimination against women in 1974). Many women resenters remember a less capitalistic approach to business: free checking and savings accounts; respectful, personalized service; and scandal-free institutions. Although many women resenters will age out of the consumer market, younger women have issues such as #MeToo and Time's Up that don't portend an uptick in trust of historically patriarchal institutions.

Figure 1: Trend: I resent any profits financial institutions make from my doing business with them. (Net Agree)

According to a 2017 Pew Research study, "Americans place a higher value on a man's role as a financial provider" than they place on a woman's role as a financial provider (even though women bring home more than half of household earnings). About seven in ten adults (71%) say that to be a good husband or partner, "it is very important for a man to be able to support a family financially." However, because of the Great Recession—coupled with current economic conditions such as stagnating wages and escalating housing prices—many well-educated, hard-working young men feel unqualified, by Pew's definition, to be a good provider. Not only do these men resent financial-institution profits, 44% of men resenter households with financial assets of $100K or more resent excessive executive pay at financial institutions they do business with.

Learn more about the importance of gender analysis. Subscribers can segment MacroMonitor respondents by the gender of the person who completed the questionnaire.

Several additional deliverables are available to MacroMonitor subscribers:

The MacroMonitor provides fact-based information to identify, profile, and understand household populations better. For more information, please contact us.