“Nothing bad happens when you put more money in the hands of women.” This is how Sallie Krawcheck, CEO and co-founder of Ellevest, an investment platform that helps women build and manage their wealth, opened her session at our sister brand’s Women in Retail Leadership Summit last month.

In fact, she continued, if we close the gender wealth gap, “society is fairer, there is less hatred, and there is less extremism. In that place, the economy grows, our daughters are better off since they see their mothers in a position of equality, and our sons are better off since they see their mothers in a position of equality.”

Unfortunately, however, the news is not good when it comes to women and money. The gender pay gap has been flat over the past ten years, Krawcheck noted, and the percent of venture capital that women get to start their businesses has gone down. In addition, the gender wealth gap has gone in the wrong direction. “Women have lost ground,” Krawcheck said.

So, what can women do to build wealth?

“Investing,” Krawcheck said.

But yet, women don’t invest nearly as much as men do. “Some of it is because we don’t have the money [men] have, but even on a percent basis,” she said. “And since we stayed back from investing, it has cost the women in this room hundreds of thousands of dollars — and for some millions of dollars — over the course of their lives.”

Why have they not invested? Krawcheck said it stems from an underlying misogyny, starting in childhood, that women are not good with money and not good in math. As a result, they are not smart enough to do investing. What’s more, Krawcheck said, women are criticized for doing things like “buying the latte” in the general media, which is a subtle, misogynistic statement that they overspend on luxuries. “Why are we focusing on not buying the latte, instead of focusing on the bigger, societal inequities, like the wage gap, the pink tax, the student loan debt crisis and the investing gap?”

To move forward, women have to “get rid of these money lies,” Krawcheck said. “In addition, we have to come together and invest in other women. In a capitalist society, capital is what matters. Capital is power. Capital is strength. Capital is independence. So if we can invest in each other and support each other, that would be a way forward.”

In closing, Krawcheck said, “the only way we get this country into a better spot for our kids is if they see us investing and taking control of our money unabashedly and with positive energy. It’s important for us. It’s incredibly important for our children, and quite frankly it’s important for the direction of this country as well.”