The Great Wealth Transfer: What Happens When Women Get Rich?

Who even IS the patriarchy??

That is the question I am constantly asking myself.

I have this image of six douchey white dudes sitting in some very secret, but opulent space, surrounded by a haze of expensive cigar smoke, plotting against women and minorities and saying, “How do we keep them hating themselves so they stay poor and powerless??”

If a woman is present, her voice is ignored, talked over, and maybe even mocked.

I don’t think that is actually how it works.

Except for the woman’s voice getting talked over in a room full of male voices. That still happens.

The patriarchy has evolved into more of that sinister soup I wrote about last week. It stays alive through the norms and values we hold as a society, while men continue to hold a disproportionate share of wealth and positions of power.

But over the last century, women have been chipping away at that.

We are uncovering and embodying our power.

We have moved mountains.

We can vote. Own property. Open bank accounts. Start businesses. Work while pregnant without legally being fired simply for being pregnant. Sit on the Supreme Court. Become Vice President. Run for President.

Plus, women are getting richer.

And we’re about to get a whole lot richer.

Women’s wealth is growing. One interesting little data point: UBS found that the average wealth of female billionaires grew 8.4% in 2025, compared with 3.2% for male billionaires.

But the much bigger story is what’s being called The Great Wealth Transfer.

Cerulli Associates estimates that $124 trillion will change hands in the United States through 2048. About $105 trillion is expected to go to heirs and $18 trillion to charity.

And women are going to control an enormous portion of that money.

About $54 trillion is expected to first transfer between spouses. More than 95% of those spousal transfers are expected to go to women, with Cerulli estimating that nearly $40 trillion will move into the control of widowed women in the Baby Boomer and older generations.

Meanwhile, younger generations of women are expected to receive about $47 trillion through intergenerational wealth transfers.

So no, I’m not going to tell you that “$100 trillion is going to women,” because those numbers overlap as wealth moves from one generation to another.

But we don’t need to exaggerate this.

Women are about to control a shit-ton of money.

The “feminization of wealth” is upon us.

And one of the questions being asked is:

Are women ready to hold this amount of wealth?

When I hear that, I hear another question underneath it:

Can women handle this much financial power?

First of all, yes.

Quit fucking with our heads.

Women do not need to prove that we are better than men with money in order to deserve to have it.

We are smart and resourceful. We have proven this over and over again. We will figure it out.

And no, Lululemon and Louis Vuitton are not about to become the highest-valued companies on the planet.

But here is where I think the question gets more interesting.

Because when women have money, we don’t have to prove that we deserve it by promising to save the world with it either.

We don’t have to be exceptionally benevolent in order to be allowed to be wealthy.

So maybe the question I’m interested in isn’t whether women are ready to manage all this money.

Can we receive it?

Can we step into this amount of financial power without feeling guilty, overworking, overgiving, and overcompensating?

Can we have money without believing we have to exhaust ourselves to deserve it?

Can we use some of it for rest? Fun? Beauty? Pleasure?

Can we bring more balance to what wealth and power look like?

Because once we have all of this money, we don’t have to do wealth exactly the way it has been done before.

If women inherit trillions of dollars but still believe we have to overwork, overgive, prove we’re good, justify wanting wealth, and use our money in ways that make everyone else comfortable…

have we actually stepped into our financial power?

I feel in my core that this Great Wealth Transfer is part of the shift out of patriarchy.

When women have money, things change.

This isn't just me being woo about it. Women are more likely than men to give to charity, and when they give, they tend to give a larger percentage of their income. Research also shows the ripple effects when women have greater economic resources: families, education, health, communities, and economies benefit.

Women with money change the world.

And I believe that as more wealth moves into women's hands, we're going to see more of that.

But...women shouldn't have to change the world to justify having money.

We don't have to prove that we're going to give enough of it away, save enough people, or use every dollar for some noble purpose in order to be allowed to want a lot of it.

We can change the world with our money.

And we can buy the handbag.