Barbara Stanny opens Secrets of Six-Figure Women with her research methodology: extensive interviews with women who had built significant personal wealth, seeking to identify common traits and strategies distinct from conventional financial advice typically aimed at women.

Why Stanny undertook this research:

• She observed that most financial advice targeted at women assumed lower risk tolerance and ambition by default, often steering women toward more conservative financial strategies without genuine evidence this served their actual interests
• Her own personal financial history — including navigating financial recovery after her marriage to a man who secretly gambled away the family's wealth — motivated her interest in what genuinely distinguished financially successful women
• By studying women who had actually achieved significant financial success, rather than theorizing about what should work, Stanny aimed to identify evidence-based patterns rather than assumption-based advice

This research foundation positions the book as a direct challenge to conventional gendered financial advice, built on the actual documented experience of women who achieved genuine financial independence.