eToro’s new Loud Investing research reveals that pervasive industry messaging about women’s investing confidence is not only inaccurate—it’s actively discouraging participation and contributing to the UK’s £678 billion investment gap.
Highlights
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57% of UK industry reports portray women as “too nervous to invest”, reinforcing harmful stereotypes that one in five women say actively discourages them from investing.
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Contrary to the narrative, research shows women investors actually outperform men by nearly 2% annually—traits like patience and discipline are mis-labelled as hesitation.
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eToro’s Loud Investing initiative calls for a shift in language and representation—when women were shown positive success-framed headlines, motivation to invest surged by 44%.
Summary
eToro has called out the financial-services industry for its reliance on the so-called “confidence gap” narrative—claiming that women invest less because they lack confidence. Their Loud Investing research, analysing over 80 UK reports from 2020-25 and surveying 2,000 women, finds that more than half of industry messaging frames women negatively, describing them as “too nervous” or “too unsure” to invest.
The irony: studies show women often achieve better returns than men, thanks to behaviours like trading less, taking a long-term view and avoiding overconfidence. eToro argues that the problem isn’t women, but how the industry talks about them—terms like “lack confidence” actually reduce engagement. In experiments, when women were shown success-oriented headlines (e.g., “Women outperform men by 4%”), 26% of non-investors said they wanted to learn more, and 44% overall were more motivated.
With the UK’s gender investment gap estimated at £678 billion, this messaging issue looms large. eToro is using its platform, ambassador Jill Scott MBE and the Loud Investing campaign to reframe how women are addressed in investing conversations. The lesson: rather than telling women they’re not confident enough, the industry needs to highlight their strengths, shift representation and dismantle biased language if it truly wants to close the gap.
