Have you ever thought about the type of language that's used in the finance sector? Without having to think too hard it's easy to come up with a number of some traditionally masculine examples, such as "building" a portfolio, the ASX "fighting" its way upward, watching a share or stock market "tank", then there's dawn raids, Death Star IPOs, Samurai bonds, scalping, whipsaws and kill orders, to name a few.

A study published by Tilburg University in the Netherlands in 2015 found that the language and metaphors in investor communication come from the same source domains which include war and combat, heavy physical activity and building and construction.

Now, this is definitely not to say that men like war, or that women don't like sports and physical activity. Masculine language in finance is a product of legacy. It wasn't so long ago that women worked only if they were not married. In the past, it was sons, not daughters that inherited a family's wealth. In fact, if you go back to Jane Austen's time, the only investment decision made by upper-class women was in choosing a wealthy bachelor to marry. It's not so strange then that finance, a typically masculine sector, would use some typically masculine language.

The Dutch study also found that this kind of language works to exclude, rather than include women investors. It is a fact that women participate less in the stock market than men, and if they do, they generally take less risk. This gender gap in financial decision-making is often explained due to differences in risk tolerance and financial literacy, but the gap can also increasingly be attributed to the degree to which men and women identify with the language used in the finance sector. While masculine financial language works to exclude women, the study also suggested it creates feelings of familiarity and belonging among men.

Language and the way products are marketed are important drivers of inclusion and exclusion. A good example of this was the changes in marketing tack by both PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP) and The Coca-Cola Co (NYSE: KO) in the way they marketed their diet soft drink products in the 1990s and 2000s. Marketers found that amongst male consumers, the word "diet" evoked images of the world of women and brought to mind the idea of fitting clothes and spending time in front of a mirror, so Pepsi Max and Coke Zero were born.

Due to increased female labour market participation and changes in socio-demographics, women as much as men are involved in taking care of their finances. So, could there be a time in the future where we knit or weave our portfolios rather than build them? Or perhaps a more gender-neutral financial language will emerge. Only time will tell.

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Nike's (NYSE: NKE) share price closed yesterday at an all-time high of $83.47 on the back of the company's new marketing campaign featuring American Football quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Kaepernick played for the National Football League's San Francisco 49ers from 2011 to 2016 and became known for protesting injustice by refusing to stand for the national anthem at the start of games.

The Dream Crazy campaign features Kaepernick saying, "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything" and marks the 30th anniversary of the "Just Do It" slogan. To date, the 2 minute video at the centre of the campaign has been viewed over 25 million times.

Initial public reaction savaged the sneaker maker. Nike shares fell to $79.60 on 4 September, the first day of trading after the American Labor Day long weekend, over which the campaign was launched. This was a significant initial drop of over 3 percent from the previous closing price of $82.20.

Critics of the Nike campaign ranged from everyday Nike consumers to the President of the United States. Donald Trump weighed in with a tweet on 7 September asking "What was Nike thinking?" and the hashtag #justburnit started trending on Twitter with users defacing or burning their Nike products in response to the campaign.

But, very quickly, the tide turned. Nike's alignment with the instigator of demonstrations during the national anthem to bring attention to racial injustice and police brutality has bolstered its image with the younger millennial demographic.

Major social media influencers Serena Williams and LeBron James, who both feature in the campaign, came out strongly in support of Nike and Kaepernick.

James shared the Nike ad on his Instagram account alongside an emoji of a black fist. James has nearly 42 million followers on Instagram and the post has been liked almost 1.5 million times. Williams, who has almost 11 million followers on Twitter tweeted that she was "especially proud to be a part of the Nike family today." The tweet has been retweeted 57,000 times.

Investors on Robinhood, an American no fee brokerage platform popular with younger users started buying Nike stock in droves. Sales are up 300 percent since the launch of the campaign and the stock is now held by 22,000 investors, an increase of 18 percent from the previous week when the campaign was launched.

More and more consumers, especially millennials expect brands to reflect their moral and political values, and in this instance, millennials have paid attention. We've all heard the old adage, "it's a marathon, not a sprint", and that's exactly what Nike is doing in targeting millennial consumers.

Young people buy a lot of sneakers, so in creating this campaign Nike has raised the middle finger to a whole lot of conservative, older Americans who, let's face it, may only buy sneakers every few years on sale. In doing so, they have repositioned themselves to an entire generation of new fans.

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One major challenge facing stock exchanges around the world is the lack of female investors. 

There is a definite preference for women to choose lower risk wealth growth options like term deposits or bonds over stocks, but why? One of the reasons is that the financial services industry hasn't done a good job of talking to women about risk. 

A 2014 study by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economics found almost 60 percent of females were unprepared to take any financial risk, compared with around 40 percent of males. 

When it comes to money, women are inherently more risk aware than men.

I say risk aware rather than risk averse because the difference lies not in being afraid of risk, but of not being educated in using risk to your advantage. 

From a young age, girls are taught to avoid risk. It was true for me, and may be true for many others that parents are often more likely to reward boys for accomplishments or risk-taking while urging girls to be cautious. 

Demystifying risk to someone who has been told her whole life to "be careful" is no easy task, and the financial services industry's  lack of diversity across major institutions like Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) is a problem. 

In Australia, only one in five financial advisors is female. Women are twice as likely as men to first seek advice from a financial advisor. However, a 2016 study from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) found there was a lack of appropriate financial advice providers that women felt comfortable with. 

Research has shown that when women do consult an advisor, the advice comes more in the form of a sales pitch rather than a mutual conversation. They also feel pushed into riskier investments that they are not comfortable with. Advice needs to be relationship focussed rather than transactionally focussed. 

I don't know about you, but if I'm going to buy shares in a company with my hard earned money, I want to understand the risks involved. I believe this is true for all investors, but more keenly so for women. 

Differences in risk awareness could be attributed to the distinct ways males and female process information.

A 2012 questionnaire for the Journal of Advanced Research in Management found males are highly selective in the way they process information and emphasise the upside of expected return. In contrast, women work through financial information comprehensively and are more concerned with the downside risk. 

But times are changing. Women are having much more involvement in financial decision-making in households which is linked to their increasing financial education levels and earning power. This leads to improved financial literacy and understanding of risk. 

If female consumers can be talked through their options, and the outcomes clearly articulated, they are more likely to accept risk, and the gender gap in equity markets will narrow. 

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The 50-inch bronze Fearless Girl statue appeared on New York's Wall Street on the evening of 7 March 2017. The figure was positioned defiantly facing down Wall Street's iconic Charging Bull.

Fearless Girl's appearance was timed to coincide with International Women's Day, a day that marks the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. It also serves as a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

Commissioned by State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), the Fearless Girl statue aimed to promote the anniversary of SSGA's SHE Fund, which invests only in companies that have women in top leadership positions.

As a marketing strategy, it was genius. Fearless Girl was an extremely shareable, Instagram-worthy piece of art. After three months, the campaign had a reach of more than 4.6 billion impressions worldwide, lifting State Street's share of voice within the finance market from 7.8 percent to 37.4 percent.

The campaign reportedly had a huge impact on the company's SHE Fund, with daily trading volume growing by 384 percent in the three days after the statue debuted and 170 percent over the following 20 business days. It's safe to say, that State Street's Fearless Girl was a major success for State Street, but what else did it achieve?

After the January 2017 inauguration of President Donald Trump, a wave of women's marches occurred in the United States and around the world. These happened largely due to statements President Trump had made which were regarded by many as anti-women.

At the same time, in popular culture, the release of empowering TV series and films, such as The Handmaid's Tale and Wonder Woman meant that the Fearless Girl landed on Wall Street's Bowling Green at the exact right point in history.

The campaign tapped into two major issues around gender diversity, not just in the United States, but around the world – pay parity and the under representation of female leadership in business.

In the United States, the gender pay gap sits at 18 percent. In Australia the gap is narrower and (good news) it's also closing. Statistics released last week by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency show the gender pay gap had dropped from 15.3 per cent to 14.6 per cent in the last year.

Then there's gender diversity in business leadership. The financial services industry, more so than many other industries, has long faced problems in recruiting and promoting women.

The 2020 Gender Diversity Index (GDI) tracks the number of women on the boards of the 2010 Fortune 1000 list of companies in the United States. In 2017 they reported that of the 801 active GDI companies, women hold 20.8 percent of board seats, an increase from 19.7 percent in 2016 and 14.6 percent in 2011. A good start, but there's still a long way to go.

What the Fearless Girl campaign showed is that when companies use advertising to put deeper meaning into their agendas, it resonates. The campaign also served to highlight, start and continue conversations about the barriers women face in remuneration and promotion within the work environment.

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