Finance And Gender

There are sharp differences between male and female debt literacy levels. In each of the three questions, women were much less likely to respond correctly than were men, sometimes by as much as 20 percentage points. Furthermore, many women stated they did not know the answer to the literacy questions. Since our survey covers the entire age group, we also have investigated gender differences among those younger than 30 and those older than 65. We find that gender differences are significant among both the young and the old, confirming findings in other research about the low levels of literacy of women in younger and older generations (Lusardi and Mitchell, 2008; Lusardi, Mitchell, and Curto, 2008).

Lusardi, Annamaria, and Peter Tufano. Debt literacy, financial experiences, and overindebtedness. No. w14808. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2009.

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Consonant with the received literature, we find that women exhibit less risk-taking than men in their most recent, largest, and riskiest mutual fund investment decisions. More importantly, we find that the impact of gender on risk taking is significantly weakened when investor knowledge of financial markets and investments is controlled in the regression equation. This result suggests that the greater level of risk aversion among women that is frequently documented in the literature can be substantially, but not completely, explained by knowledge disparities.

Dwyer, Peggy D., James H. Gilkeson, and John A. List. "Gender differences in revealed risk taking: evidence from mutual fund investors." Economics Letters 76.2 (2002): 151-158.

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Being younger and being a woman are also risk factors for compulsive buying. One consistent finding of past research is that age is negatively correlated with compulsive buying (e.g. D’Astous, 1990; Dittmar, 2005b). Furthermore, a number of studies have reported that rates of compulsive buying among women are significantly higher than those among men (e.g. Schlosser et al., 1994). Some explanations for this difference include women are more interested in clothing, beauty and adornment, and in socializing while shopping than men (Bloch, 1993; Kwon, 1997; Dittmar et al., 2004). However, Koran et al. (2006) reported similar compulsive buying rates among men and women. In younger samples, the gender difference for compulsive buying is reduced (Dittmar, 2005b).

Brougham, Ruby R., et al. "Who pays your debt? An important question for understanding compulsive buying among American college students." International Journal of Consumer Studies 35.1 (2011): 79-85.

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Data from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation’s National Financial Capability Study revealed that women were more likely to engage in costly credit card behaviors--like incurring late and over-the-limit fees--than men. After controlling for a number of demographic variables, including financial literacy and a self-assessment of mathematical ability, the gender-based differences in credit card behavior were eliminated. These findings suggest that credit card management differences between the sexes could be reduced if parity existed between men and women on important variables that women tend to trail men on, such as income and financial literacy.

Mottola, Gary R. "In Our Best Interest: Women, Financial Literacy, and Credit Card Behavior." Numeracy 6.2 (2013): 4.

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Findings illustrate the dynamics of male control of household expenditure and the acquisition of problematic debt. They also suggest that when men have sole responsibility for managing incomes constrained by over-indebtedness, they experience the anxiety and depression more typically reported by women; but ‘male pride’ in relation to financial matters that forms a significant component of their identities acts as a barrier to seeking advice.

Goode, Jackie. "Brothers are doing it for themselves?: Men's experiences of getting into and getting out of debt." The Journal of Socio-Economics 41.3 (2012): 327-335.

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Specifically, the findings suggest that gender is significantly related to perceived lifestyle outcomes of credit card usage (refer to Table 3), where males perceive that the use of credit cards provide access to mainstream society, while females perceive that the use of credit cards provide them with more financial confidence. However, the literature suggests that the influence of gender on credit card ownership and usage practices are mixed. For instance, Adcock et al. (1977) found gender as a significant predictor of credit card ownership and use, where males are more likely to use credit cards than females, although Adcock et al. (1977) do not describe the reasons behind this increased usage. However, some recent studies found that there are no significant differences between males and females in the determination of the benefits sought from credit cards, the ownership of credit cards, the practices of paying interest, making minimum payments and the feeling that they had on good management of finances (e.g. Kaynak and Harcar, 2001).

Wickramasinghe, Vathsala, and Anurudh Gurugamage. "Effects of social demographic attributes, knowledge about credit cards and perceived lifestyle outcomes on credit card usage." International Journal of Consumer Studies 36.1 (2012): 80-89.

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Further reading:

Eisenhauer, Joseph G. "Estimating prudence." Eastern Economic Journal 26.4 (2000): 379-392.

Dittmar, Helga. "A new look at “compulsive buying”: Self–discrepancies and materialistic values as predictors of compulsive buying tendency." Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 24.6 (2005): 832-859.