Great Graphic: Feminization of Consumption

This Great Graphic comes from a post by An Hodgson on Euromonitor International.  It depicts the growth in real disposable annual income per capita for three high income countries by gender in the 2007-2012 period. 

The key take away is that women's disposable income is rising in absolute terms and relative to men's throughout the high income countries.  Real disposable income for women rose 1.3% (annual average in real terms), while it fell nearly 2% for men.  

In part, this reflects rising female participation in the work force.  This itself is partly a function of the Great Recession hitting industries like construction, that were dominated by men.  This is leading an increase in households in which women are the primary earners.  Hodgson notes that this pattern is true for the BRICs, but that studies by the World Bank and others find that in the poor countries, women have been hit the hardest.  

Women are already making the majority of purchasing decision in many countries and, like Hodgson and the Euromonitor International, we suspect that this is the tip of a larger social transformation.   We have previously argued work itself is becoming feminized.

This post illustrates how disposable income (and by extension, consumption) is being feminized.   This is part of a longer term trend.  Hodgson estimates that over the 2013-2020 period, the global average annual disposable income per capita for women will increase by a little more than 18% in real terms, compared with about 6% real growth in the 2007-2012 period.  This has far reaching implications for businesses, design and marketing.

We suspect power will increasingly become feminized as well, though at this juncture, it is more conjecture than real.