A Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management study found financial disparities between women and men, with women holding an average of £100,000 less in financial assets than men.
The study found that women typically hold an average of £147,000 in financial assets, compared to £250,000 for men.
Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management’s report, Gender and generation: unravelling the wealth gap highlights how the gender divide in financial literacy and confidence in investment markets and products is impairing women’s ability to build wealth.
The research found that just 18% of adult women feel they received a good education on managing money in school, compared to about a quarter (24%) of men.
This contrast is starker amongst the younger generations, with nearly half (46%) of men under the age of 30 believing they had received a good education, compared to just 28% of women within the same age bracket.
The report’s authors said this may go some way to explaining why more women than men in every age bracket admit to having limited or no understanding of financial products such as investments, mortgages, pensions, and insurance.
Notably, more than two-thirds (69%) of women claimed to have little or no knowledge of investments compared to 43% of men, while more than half (56%) of women admitted to the same for pensions, compared to 37% of men.
According to the study, women are more likely to have oversight of day-to-day household finances like groceries and bills (80% versus 69%), while men tend to take the lead on financial products such as credit cards (58% versus 52%), pensions (47% versus 31%) and investments (40% versus 19%).
Men were also found to be much more comfortable taking a high-risk, high-reward approach to investing, with women proving far more risk-averse.
Nearly half (46%) of women stated they would feel uneasy or panicked about picking an investment with the potential for large gains but also the risk of large losses, with a third (34%) saying they would never pick a high-risk investment at all. Meanwhile, only 10% of men admit to feeling very uncomfortable with the idea.
The research also found that men are far more likely to feel confident offering financial advice to friends and family (41% versus 29%).
PK Patel, head of wealth management at Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management, said: “Another year, another International Women’s Day – and yet more evidence highlighting the ongoing disparity between men’s and women’s finances across the country.
“The gender wealth gap created by historical and systematic factors will take many years to close out, particularly as young women still feel that they have not received a proper financial education. Building financial literacy and confidence among women of every age is key to turning the tide and reaching an equal level of wealth generation.”
Related: Are women too cautious? Exploring the relationship between gender and investment risk
