How boomer, Gen X, millennial and Gen Z women have changed the money conversation in America (and why it matters)

It’s a clever take, and one that becomes more nuanced when you zoom in on the women of each of those generations.

That’s because — as retirement finance expert and baby boomer Marcia Mantell told Moneywise — “the history of women and money is so recent.”

Consider that the oldest Gen Xers started elementary school before women could get a credit card without a male co-signer (2). Yes, it wasn’t till 1974 that the Equal Opportunity Act took effect.

Yet that short history hasn’t stopped women from making massive financial gains that are still impacting their money today.

Boomers break down the door and Gen X storms through

Boomer women were raised by the Silent Generation (those born 1928—1945) who remained mostly silent about finances.

“None of us grew up in households that talked about money,” Mantell said.

So most female boomers stayed quiet about money too.

Mantell noted that many older women in the boomer cohort took on a Leave It to Beaver-esque homemaker role, with a focus on household budgeting.

Meanwhile, their younger sisters followed The Mary Tyler Moore Show example, not only pursuing an education but a career as well, putting them on track to earn money..

As Mantell observes, that made them a formidable demographic.

Boomer women were sold on “having it all” which really meant, as The Fem Word put it, “that women had to do it all — from raising the kids to running the household and then earning half the income.”

Still, Mantell said, their efforts paid off as they made “much bigger strides” than earlier generations of women.

Many even started opening up about money, sharing financial advice with their Gen X daughters including insights about money they wished they’d learned as young women.

Lynn Toomey, financial educator, podcast host and Gen Xer, told Moneywise that this has produced a generation of women who are comfortable talking up about things like Roth accounts and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).

But there are still taboo topics.

“I don't think they're necessarily open about what they make for a living,” Toomey noted.

Financial therapist and author Lindsay Bryan-Podvin — a millennial — told Moneywise that female Gen Xers were committed to achieving financial independence after seeing how dependent their mothers were on partners, and how they struggled after divorce.

“So that pendulum was kind of swinging the other way, like ‘I'll just do it myself,’” she said. “And I think that kind of colored their relationship with money.”

It’s a shift consistent with Gen X’s reputation for fierce independence. The female cohort carved out careers, climbed the corporate ladder and, Toomey noted, swapped those careers for second-act opportunities in midlife.

They took advantage of being the first generation of women to have equal access to technology and personal finance tools — which they’ll need with the impending Great Wealth Transfer.

Some experts say women in the U.S. will inherit almost three quarters of the $124 trillion changing hands, with $14 trillion headed to Gen Xers over the next decade (4).

Millennials and Gen Z changing the narrative

Learning from their mothers, millennial women set out to do everything right financially. They got degrees and jobs.

Then the 2008 Great Recession wiped out many of their gains.

Bryan-Podvin said the fallout of that crisis upended their worldview and relationship with money — shattering taboos around finances and mental health.

These millennial women blew open the conversation around financial independence, gender pay gaps and investing.

Bryan-Podvin said the rise of the “girl boss” era was a direct response to the financial anxiety and scarcity of 2008.

Millennial women monetized their digital platforms while social media brought wider access to financial information.

Which all flows naturally to Gen Z women, the oldest of whom turn 30 next year.

Bryan-Podvin says Gen Z women saw how the Great Recession impacted millennials.