Why Are Most Women Not More Financially Literate?
Managing money is not an easy task. Women of all ages and backgrounds have to struggle with the pressure to earn enough to access education and a perfect retirement plan. Lack of resources to educate women about confidence, financial pressure, and other complexity is a big reason for women lacking financial literacy.
“Financial literacy is paramount. When a woman is financially independent, she can live life in her terms.”
Regarding securing and building financial well-being in life, women confront more challenges than men because women report being less confident about economic issues. Many consider that financial knowledge is a key to eliminating these wealth disparities. We find that women underperform men on financial knowledge tests in modern ages.
Is it that women indeed have less knowledge than men in finance? Or is it that women lack experience in delegate aspects for significant financial decisions, reflecting uncertainty more than competence or ability? Knowing the answer to these questions can illuminate behavior that defines gender wealth inequalities.
When the ‘don’t know’ option is unavailable, women are more likely to select the correct answer.
As per the modern researcher’s survey, more than 56% of the respondents identified as male, and 44% identified as female.
However, another cultural reason for the gender gap between males and females is women lack financial literacy. A male-dominated college such as computer sciences, engineering courses, accountancy studies can be a hostile place for women to work and grow up with many opportunities to groom themselves. Others cite a too small pipeline of women interested in pursuing science technology.
When a woman takes a break from her career for childbirth, raising children, or looking after elderly parents, she usually scarifies the momentum she has gained from working. In the past research, it was demonstrated that women make up to 46.9% of the labor force, although that number is expected to fall slightly in the coming years. If we calculate, women are paid less on average, making 20% less than men working full time. In 2019, women’s median weekly earnings for working full-time was $670. For men, that number was $846.
Nearly half the percentage of marriages end in separation, and, in many cases, women encounter financial consequences with a higher part of severity than men. Legal fees, tax liabilities, and complications from assets dividing make divorce expensive, and it can take a couple of years before financial recovery is possible. Unlike other financial matters, most women retain custody of children and struggle to make a hassle due to the high cost of child care.
The wage-earning gap is also an issue on Social Security Benefits, a built-in foundation that some people rely on for retirement expenses. As a result of these challenges and lack of planning, women merely encounter poverty in old ages and be forced to rely on government development organizations for living expenses.
