Wanna Avoid Spending Your Hard-Earned Money On Sexist Brands? There’s An App For That!

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There is a stereotype that women like to shop and spend money. Well it turns out that stereotype is no myth. According to figures, women control 65% of global spending and more than 80% in the US. Needless to say consumerism is definitely a woman’s market. Although it may be a “woman’s world” in this particular aspect, the brands we spend our hard-earned dollars on may not always be so woman-friendly.

But how on earth would you ever know whether the brand you are choosing to buy has equality in mind or even gives a damn about women in general? Good news, there’s now an app for that! It is called Buy Up Index and we predict it will be a game changer and keep brands accountable to the majority of the consumer market.

The app rates a company or a brand from A to C and using a proprietary rating method, they assess companies based on four major factors: women employees, women leadership, corporate citizenship and marketing.

The app was founded by two genius women: Amy Willard Cross, who is also the founder of Vitamin W Media – an online media company focusing on news and social activism related to women’s issues – and Andrea Rudert, the president of Vitamin W Media.

Their team of advisors and researchers are made up of 100% women, all of whom are badasses in their own fields already.

“We want to make the world a more equal place using spending power,” says a description about the new app, focusing on the amount of women making the majority of spending decisions in the US.

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“Harnessing this spending power can encourage companies to serve female consumers better and promote gender equality in the workplace.”

They also have an incentive for both the women who download the app, and the companies that are rated with an “A”: they will invite these companies to offer exclusive offers and coupons to their users, making that a win-win for everyone involved.

In a world where it has become the norm for women to feel less than worthy by brands who will do anything to make a buck or two off the back of their low self-esteem, the BuyUp Index is a welcome change, one that could quite possibly bring about a distinct cultural shift in the way corporations view equality.

“My hope is that women direct their spending to companies that serve women well, as opposed to giving money to companies that have no women on the board or sexist advertising,” said founder Amy, a self-confessed feminist, to the Huffington Post.

Aside from her credentials with Vitamin W Media, Amy has had previous experience creating a ratings-based idea that helps consumers make more informed choices about workplace ethics. In 2002 she launched the Corporate Equality Index for the Human Rights Campaign which rates America workplaces on their treatment of LGBT employees. Huffpost reports that in its launch year, this index only managed to rate 18 companies with a top score, but in 2015, that number has increased dramatically to 189. Clearly the ratings-based system is making a dent in the fight for equality!

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For Buy Up Index they are only rating companies that are publicly traded because in their ratings methodology, they rely on publicly disclosed information that these types of companies have. In the future they plan to include private companies to self-disclose information about their workplace.

To find out details of their methodology and what each rating score means, you can click on the website info, but in a nutshell researchers sifted through publicly available data on the 150 companies currently participating.

In a blog post on the Buy Up Index website, Amy says women care about what they buy and where they buy it from. She is also heavily invested in the millennial market who she claims care about making ethical decisions when it comes to spending money.

“Some 12 million millennials already shop ethically, add that to the 12 million people who support non-profits advancing women and you’ve got a lot of prosperous ethical consumers who want to know what’s inside the bottle—and are willing to read the label and make the right choice.  As the second L’Oreal tagline said, ‘Because you’re worth it’,” she writes.

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“Brands now want to reach this generation of ethical consumers.  Realizing the power of good-vertising many companies are starting to find new ways to communicate: McDonalds is building apps about their ethical practices. Walmart has committed to buying $20 billion of women-sourced goods. Companies that communicate their good messages well will do better—and see have better sales.  Consumers will reward them with their allegiance.”

There are many different forms of activism today, and Amy and her team are harnessing the power of financial activism.

“I always thought words would get us equality. Now I realize money is an important tool,” she told Huffpost, adding that with women spending trillions of dollars every year in the US, harnessing that power for gender equality could be incredibly powerful.

We are eagerly anticipating how the Buy Up Index will affect the way brands do business with women! You can hear more about the app in the video below:

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