Norway is ranked best in the world when it comes to gender equality. But as progressive as we might be in some areas, there is one important issue no one seem to be talking about - the overwhelming difference between men and women when it comes to money. Equal wage has long been a discussion, but it’s what people do with the money their earn that results in the true wealth gap. Working with DNB, Norway’s biggest bank, we found an extremely imbalanced economical gender distribution. Men invest far more of their money than women, which has resulted in a Gender Wealth Gap now equal to the entire state budget of Norway (NOK 1216 billion) Having the role of Norway’s biggest bank, DNB wanted to spark an important conversation around gender inequality in Norwegian investments – and in that way inspire and engage women to invest.

Kaptial is the Norwegian equivalent of Forbes magazine. For many years, the magazine has annually released a list of the 400 wealthiest people in Norway. The list is highly anticipated every year, and kept strictly confidential until its release. Upon publication it sparks conversation about the distribution of wealth among journalists, politicians and the general public. Our insights about wealth through the bank, along with the historical data from the list throughout the years, led us to believe that the list for 2019 would be shamefully devoid of women. Only a small percentage of the 400 richest would be women, and most of them would be heirs.

So, knowing the massive publicity the list would have, we contacted Kapital to see if we could work with them on the list for 2019, to highlight the national economic gender imbalance.

Through our collaboration with Kapital magazine, Norway’s equivalent to Forbes, we “hijacked” their annual list of Norway’s 400 wealthiest. We got special access to the strictly confidential list just two weeks before publication, and used the information to recreate the list – without all the men. The adjusted list was made into a twin magazine that mirrored Kapital’s look and layout, and was named Kapital Gap. The twin magazine was packaged with Kapital’s issue containing the anticipated list and published as a duo magazine. The release of the twin magazines served as the catalyst of our #girlsinvest campaign - an initiative where the bank urged more women to invest their money in order to close the Gender Wealth Gap.

The Kapital Gap sparked a massive conversation. Every major news outlet in Norway discussed the topic – resulting in the magazine becoming the most talked-about commercial publication in Norway in 2019. The editor of Kapital was even invited to talk about the gender imbalance on Norway’s largest news channel. The bank joined politicians in a televised debate, and journalists in almost every publication discussed the importance of the empty list. As the conversation and campaign #girlsinvest grew, every major Norwegian bank published their support for the initiative, and joined DNB in order to work together to help close the Gender Wealth Gap. And most importantly, in just the first three weeks of the campaign, total investments made by women went up by +30%, and it’s still growing to this day. And, for the first time in history, there were now more women than men who started to invest in funds.