Living single, buying a home, and negotiating salaries — How Pinterest supports & empowers women
Women around the world come to Pinterest for inspiration as they make decisions big and small, to navigate life’s moments. The purchasing power of women is not to be ignored. As the global income of women reaches trillions of dollars, women are expected to control almost 75% of discretionary spending worldwide by 2028. These women are using Pinterest to find ideas for dinner, travel, home and family clothing choices. But it doesn’t end there.
In 2020, it’s clear that women are also looking to Pinterest for support and empowerment in their most independent and life-changing decisions. Everything from traveling solo, living (and budgeting) with a partner, negotiating a tough salary, to buying a first home — no choice is too big. As the platform that reaches 6 in 10 U.S. women, 8 in 10 moms and 75% of millennial women, this International Women’s Day we’re celebrating all the inspiring ways women are using Pinterest for empowerment, as well as those who help empower and support them (we see you, allies!).
Living solo
With searches for embrace being single up 48% as a Pinterest 100 trend, this might just be the year more women invest their time and energy into living their best lives solo.
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Follow your own path: With women searching Pinterest for solo travel ideas (solo trip +63%), there’s no need to wait around for a travel buddy with the same wanderlust fantasies as you.
- Ask yourself out: Searches for Solo date ideas are up 57% as women get out there to enjoy their own company.
- Home sweet home: With searches on how to buy your first home +124%, women are no longer waiting for the traditional family unit to get their dream home. According to the National Association of Realtors, 18 percent of homes last year were purchased by single women, compared to 9% single males and 8% unmarried couples.
Rising in the ranks
Whether it’s climbing the ladder, taking a chance with a startup idea that’s been brewing, or heading back to school, women are searching Pinterest for inspiration to take the leap. And, as the platform for positivity, women come to Pinterest for ongoing motivation for themselves, with searches for decision making activities +39% and independent woman quotes work hard +419%.
- Do the (side) hustle: Searches for business ideas start up +941% as women plan for taking action on their big ideas. See below for stories from Pinners who did just that.
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Let’s talk: Searches for how to ask for a raise at work +254% and negotiating salary new job +32% are on the rise.
- Back to school: Increasingly women are searching for tips as they prepare to head back to school after, or alongside the full-time job of mom’ing (going back to school as a mom +53%).
Power to the partnership
As we celebrate women, we’re also celebrating the people around her, who together, make it all happen.
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Women supporting women: As women succeed, they look for ways to encourage others, with the following searches on the up and up: inspirational quotes for women motivation +755%, inspirational quotes for women encouragement +300%, and girls support girls quotes +399%.
- Trending searches by men: We're seeing spikes in searches by men as household management responsibilities are split,, from doing the kids' hair, to prepping meals. What's a gender norm, anyway? Searches by men include: Hairstyles for kids +247% and kids braided hairstyles +203%, cleaning schedule +343%, House cleaning tips +193%, and easy family dinner ideas +35%.
Pro-tip: Make all your collaboration even easier with Group Boards, where you can organize Pins, add reactions, and communicate right on the board.
Celebrating the stories of Pinners
Ruth Soukup, founder of Living Well Spending Less, finds inspiration for her business on Pinterest, where she also attracts more than 10 million visitors a month: “I started writing Living Well Spending Less in 2010 because my spending habits had become so out-of-control that my marriage was in big trouble. I desperately needed to find a way to hold myself accountable, and writing about my challenges with living well on a budget really helped.”
Tomi Obebe of GoodTomiCha turns to Pinterest for both inspiration and amplification. “Pinterest is one of the biggest resources I use when it comes to creating content. Whether it’s the remarkable images that inspire posing ideas or researching trends to drive traffic to my blog, the benefits are endless. International Women’s Day is a beautiful reminder to celebrate all of the women who have made such an incredible impact on our lives. It’s about using our voices to empower the next generation of strong women.”
Stay-at-home-mom of 4 Noelle Bryant, shared an idea from her blog on Pinterest for a makeshift trundle bed and it quickly became viral, driving her tons of traffic. It was the start of a business as a top baby blogger and influencer. Pinterest is now the main source of traffic to her website and allows her business to grow. “My blog is a business now. I promote things I use every single day. It never crossed my mind that I would become a work-at-home mom. It started as a creative outlet and now I have partnerships with brands.”
Mikayla Dent was sitting in a college class in Charleston, West Virginia when she saw a Pin for a mobile boutique truck and she thought "I could do that." One year later, she started her first business at 18 and is successfully expanding into a retail location. “I think Pinterest was truly vital because I would have never had the idea for the truck or probably would have never stumbled upon it for at least a few more years until it became more common around me. I truly don't think I would have found them any other way to get that idea, which I then chose to pursue and go after. Pinterest kind of allowed me to look at stores across the country or feel like I had shopped at other stores or gotten to know other stores' brand images and their colors and what they're all about, down to the little details.”
Methodology
Trending searches: Percent increases are calculated using normalized searches from January ‘19 to January ‘20.
Women on Pinterest stat from ComScore data, US, March 2018
Purchasing power data from Ernst & Young Global’s EY, July 2018 (source)
Real estate data from National Association of Realtors, April 2019 (source)