Why We Should All See the Barbie Movie

Summer is my favorite season – not only for the beautiful lengthy days of sun, but also for the rare opportunity to spend quality time with one of our two children as they make their rotation through overnight camp. Two weeks ago, I found myself with my 12 - year old son, Brandon, looking for an evening outing, so we decided to check out the Barbie movie.?We appeared woefully under-styled and were wholly impressed by the audience commitment to all things pink and sparkly. There was a great feeling of female camaraderie, and the sold-out theater was abuzz with positive energy.

I had apparently been living under a rock and, having not read reviews beforehand, was excited to experience the movie in real-time, taking in the plotline, along with the magical scenery, costuming and music. I’ll leave the accolades on the staging and the brilliance of Greta Gerwig’s directing to the dozens of reviews you’ve surely now read – and instead focus on the brilliance of the serious message within and its relevance not just to the girls/women of America, but to all.

Brandon was none too happy with me, as the plot and the circumstances didn’t resonate with him in the least and he thought the car chase scene was, frankly, an epic disappointment. He didn’t understand what the Kens were doing the whole time, both in Barbieland and the Real World, and didn’t appreciate the plight that Barbie faced when she encountered the Real World.

What a privilege to live in Brandon’s shoes! Yes, he’s 12 but… my perspective couldn’t have been more different, as the Real World appeared all too familiar. When Barbie enters the Mattel Board Room, populated with all men dressed in the same suit (see my poorly framed actual movie screenshot below) and asks to see the CEO, and then the COO, and then the CFO, Barbie, confused and distraught, responds: “Something must be very wrong – where are the women?”. Exactly. I have attended hundreds of meetings in my financial services career that, except for the awesome pink heart design, look a lot like this boardroom.

The movie did a terrific job highlighting the enormous disconnect between Barbieland , aka “Fantasyland” , where women are President, constitute the entire Supreme Court, run Congress, win all the Nobel Prizes AND are the police, fire and construction workers, and The Real World. The Real World, it turns out, is the world we occupy.

In the U.S., I was recently shocked to learn that women were only provided the ability to get their own mortgage (without a male co-signor) in 1974 and secure an individual loan in 1988. That's not that long ago. And even though women are securing a lot of personal and business loans today, they are still paid 82% of men, and, according to the Federal Reserve’s most recent study, have a net worth 55% of men’s. Looking at the intersectionality of race and gender, the picture further worsens. Thanks to the Federal Reserve of St. Louis for their excellent ongoing series on gender and racial inequity and its impact on US GDP. You can see that Hispanic women’s net worth is 10% and Black women’s net worth is 5% of white men's.

Yes, progress has been made in boardrooms and even the C Suite (although still glacialy slow) as the Real World has woken up to the reality that gender parity is not just a nice to have in terms of fairness and equality, but actually a substantial economic opportunity . This McKinsey Institute study cited that, if women participated in the economy at the same rate as men, it would add 26% to annual global GDP over the next decade. So, while Virginia Slims would have had us believe that “We’ve Come A Long Way Baby”, the movie reminded me of the stark truth: we’ve got a MUCH longer way to go. ?

I’m fortunate to have joined The Copia Group, LLC , a firm where our leadership team has a long track record of being thoughtful and inclusive leaders and where appreciating diverse perspectives is, by definition, who we are. I’d like to live in a world where that’s the case at every institution and organization. Thank you, and congratulations to Greta Gerwig, Mattel, and Ryan Gosling for stepping up to portray reality in a non-threatening way – a way for conversations to be had at the dinner table and the boardroom table about the disconnect between Barbieland and The Real World. We had that discussion at our dinner table, and I’d encourage you all to do the same.?

What are some of the potential solutions to this societal challenge? I believe that private capital, in particular, private credit can move the needle for women-owned and diverse-owned businesses and become a force multiplier in shrinking the wealth gap. The additionality of private capital often means the difference between accelerating growth and stagnating growth, while not diluting the business owner’s equity.

The opportunity set to provide private credit to lower middle market businesses continues to grow. Women- owned business formation has recently clocked in at a rate of 5x majority-owned businesses, as COVID and other factors in The Real World push women to create their own realities – a world where they CAN be their own CEOs, COOs, CFOs, Founders building the culture and firm that works for them. It makes sense – why wouldn’t they?

Yet, the lack of capital to fund their businesses, from all stages of capital need, is still highly skewed. We have all seen the VC stat showing less than 2% of VC funding goes to female founders, but that inequity continues along the capital stack, with bank capital and private capital for later stage borrowing also not being equitably distributed. First Women's Bank , one of our banking partners, has a number of statistics on this point that I’d encourage you to look at.

I may be optimistic, but I want to believe that there is a road to Fantasyland, a road where we recognize and respond to long-standing systemic inequities, and that we build a bridge of capital access and growth to get us moving on the journey. I’ll be wearing my pink sparkles and locking arms with my husband, daughter, son and partners at The Copia Group to make it happen.?