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By MoneySense Staff on June 15, 2011
Estimated reading time: 1 minute

Women are less financially literate than men, study says

By MoneySense Staff on June 15, 2011
Estimated reading time: 1 minute

Are men actually better though? Or do they just think that they are?

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Previous studies in the U.S have shown that gender gaps exist in financial literacy, with men being more financially literate than women. Frances Woolley, a Professor of Economics at Carleton University, analyzed Statistics Canada’s Canadian Financial Capabilities Survey, along with Vincent and Taylor Hui, to determine if similar gaps exist in Canada. She discovered that such gaps do exist and that married men typically score highest on financial literacy surveys. Woolley explains that a number of factors may be at play – namely that men are likely to be more confident about their financial knowledge than women, it is more socially acceptable for women to profess ignorance about finances and that questions on these surveys tend to skew towards what a man would know about finances (e.g. mutual funds vs. keeping to a food budget). Single women were the least confident of respondents, with only 57% rating themselves as “good” at managing their finances. The most confident were married men – 70% said they were “good” at managing their finances.

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