Empowering women through financial education

Transcript:Empowering women through financial education:
Empowering women through financial education India-OECD-World Bank Regional Conference on Financial Education 4-5 March 2013, New Delhi, India CHIARA MONTICONE OECD with the support of the Russia/World Bank/OECD Trust Fund “We recognize the need for women and youth to gain access to financial services and financial education, ask the GPFI, the OECD/INFE, and the World Bank to identify barriers they may face and call for a progress report to be delivered by the next Summit.” G20 Leaders’ Declaration, Mexico, June 2012 Global relevance Both women and men need to be sufficiently financially literate. Women’s needs are even higher, because they: Typically have fewer financial resources than men (e.g. lower labour market participation, lower earnings, discontinuous careers for caring activities...) Live longer on average than men  Need to manage resources well and for longer periods to improve access to economic / financial opportunities and to avoid poverty in old age Rationale for focusing on women Creation of the OECD INFE Expert Subgroup “Empowering Women through Financial Education and Awareness” – chaired by India – 2010 Scoping paper “Empowering Women through Financial Awareness and Education” (Hung et al., 2012) Report on evidence and case studies – to be released in 2013 (addressing G20 mandate) Preliminary policy guidance under development (addressing G20 mandate … but clearly financial education is only part if the answer OECD Horizontal Project on Gender Equality in Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship OECD INFE work Gender differences in financial literacy and women’s vulnerabilities Policy responses Lessons and challenges Outline Gender differences in financial literacy and Women’s financial vulnerabilities Women have lower financial knowledge Women’s financial attitudes Women have lower confidence than men in their financial knowledge and skills, especially with complex issues Women and girls appear to be less interested in financial issues than men/boys Women seem to be aware of their lack of financial knowledge Men are more likely to be over-confident in their financial skills Women are more risk-averse than men Women appear to be better than men at short-term money management behaviour / having a budget But can become vulnerable in other domains, as they are: Less able to save/ save smaller amounts (typically as a result of weaker labour market position) More likely to save informally (lower access to financial markets / lower financial inclusion) More likely to cut expenses, and less likely to earn extra money/work more when facing problems making ends meet Less