Bauer Media’s Financially Fit Females campaign has smashed its target of driving one million consumer actions, driving greater financial literacy amongst women.

The recent HILDA report shockingly showed only 35% of women are considered financially literate. As part of Bauer’s purpose to drive a more equal future for all Australians, they committed to help close this gap.

Launched in February across its 36 media brands, Financially Fit Females set an ambitious goal to increase understanding and educate women around the key issues of super, salary, financial abuse, investing, divorce and separation.

The corporate commitment was made to deliver one million actions by the end of 2019 by publishing curated content for its audience. To date a total of 1,009,157 actions have been achieved, which include attending an event, listening to a podcast, watching a video, downloading resources or engaging with content. To reach the milestone, 159 social posts, 91 digital articles, 52 print articles, 47 print ads, 18 advertorials, 15 videos, five podcasts, three events, one content hub and more were created across Bauer’s brands.

Editorially Bauer recognised that finance is typically presented in a way that patronises women and treats them as splurgers who need to save pennies, which is in contrast with content for men that talks to growing investments. Bauer’s sophisticated, diverse and upbeat campaign has clearly got women’s attention.

Nicole Byers, editor-in-chief of The Australian Women’s Weekly said: “Across our portfolio of brands we’ve consistently created content which will help equip women across the country to take action and make informed decisions about their finances and ensure they are financially fit. It’s been a company-wide commitment and we’re delighted with the success we’ve seen so far.”

Brendon Hill, CEO of Bauer Media added: “As Australia’s leading female-focussed media company, we made a commitment at the start of the year to empower and educate the nation’s women about their personal finances. Reaching one million actions is a step closer to creating a nation of wealthy, woke and wise women. We are thrilled to lead such positive action.”

Bauer Media, in partnership with the Australian Banking Association (ABA) has also secured a major victory as part of its Stop Elder Financial Abuse campaign, which is an issue that disproportionately impacts women. The Attorney-Generals from State and Territory governments agreed on November 29 to create a mandatory Power of Attorney register. This builds on Bauer’s participation in the successful push last year to have the GST on female sanitary products removed, known as “The tampon tax.”

Commonwealth Bank is the 2019 headline partner supporting Financially Fit Females. Financial literacy campaigner and author Effie Zahos hosted a podcast conversation with The Australian Women’s Weekly editor-in-chief, Nicole Byers and Nathalie Spencer of the Commonwealth Bank’s behavioural economics team. Effie also joined Fiona Connolly, editor-in-chief of Woman’s Day and Commonwealth Bank’s Sian Lewis for a further podcast discussing personal experiences with financial abuse. Bauer and CBA presented a series of events and activations across Elle, Woman’s Day and The Australian Women’s Weekly brands.

Further facts on female economic abuse:

• The life-time prevalence of economic abuse for women is 15.7%, while for men it’s 7.1%
• Women are less likely to be involved in financial planning, acquiring and managing long-term investments.
• The risk of economic abuse peaks between the ages of 40 and 49. In this age group, 20.9% of women and 10.3% of men reported economic abuse.
• Among women who have sought help from domestic violence services, the prevalence of economic abuse ranges from 78% to 99%
• Women were more likely to have a history of economic abuse if they were separated or divorced; had a lower levels of education; were unemployed; or lived in households with second and lowest income quintiles.
• Women are less likely than men to have investments and have 20% less in savings and investments (Source: Roy Morgan)