Monday morning, Mike Collins, the host of Charlotte Talks on WFAE tackled the issue of women and financial literacy.
His guests were Liz Davidson, CEO of Financial Finesse, Greg Ward, Certified Financial Planner and Dr. Kevin Toomb, Clincal Professor of Marketing at UNC Charlotte who is also involved in the Charlotte Saves program to help teach financial literacy and savings skills.
While I am sure that there are some women who are not as financially savvy or confident as others, just as there are men who are not as financially literate as others, what does gender have to do with it? Why is it important to generalize about this as a gender difference rather than an issue of a lack of financial education across the board, men and women alike? Why was it suggested, as in the promo for this show, that women's eyes glaze over when faced with a long list of numbers? The paternalism was palpable.
The study is an extrapolation of statistics from their clients' use of their services. For example, they conclude that women worry more about money and are more likely to ask for help with finances. This conclusion comes primarily out of statistics from their helpline - a phone center for employees of the companies that contract with Financial Finesse to call and ask financial questions. Not a cross section of the employees of these companies, nor a cross section of the general population, but people specifically calling to ask for financial help. So, if I am getting this right, because more women than men called this helpline to ask questions, women know less about finances than men. For what it is worth, Dr. Toomb of UNC Charlotte said he does not see a gender gap in his work with Charlotte Saves - he sees that there is a need for more financial literacy across the board, women and men.
One pertinent question Mike posed (that I appreciated) was this -- since the "study" cites that 70% of the calls to the helpline were from women, did that really mean that women are not as financially literate as men or are they just more likely to ask for help? He also several times brought up the issue of pay parity between men and women in the context of the issue of savings, suggesting that maybe women dont save as much because they generally get paid less than men, and so they simply have less money to save. Yay Mike! While I wish he had been more forceful in these questions, at least he tried to suggest that the conclusions made regarding women and their financial literacy by Financial Finesse were just one perspective.
In spite of the dubious nature of the conclusions Financial Finesse promoted, a couple of good things came out of the discussion. In their survey questions you can see a difference in the way men and women view their competence with finances. This is important and is something that the WRC encounters often with women making life transitions. Women transitioning out of ended marriages into the workforce, women rejoining the workforce after years of raising kids, women starting businesses with kids at home or after kids have left home. I have no doubt that our confidence in our ability to handle finances impacts our competence, and that we could always use more of both. Their survey also suggested that women who are financially educated and confident in their abilities often do a better job than men at investing for the long term. They are more thorough in their research, at buying and holding investments and diversifying their porfolios for better performance than men of the same competence. This suggests that women are less interested in "playing the game" of investing and more interested in the long term goals of investing.
In response to this I would like to generalize about a gender phenomenon that is a well accepted fact: women get paid significantly less than men in the same job - $.78 to every dollar a man gets. Women have less money to work with than men and along with lower pay, their jobs also tend to come with little or no benefits. While I applaud working with women on becoming more financially educated and confident, how about working on the issue of equal pay and benefits so that they have some money to work with? You cannot save what you never receive.
It is an interesting coincidence that in this month's Skirt Magazine there is a wonderful one page essay by Cindy Reid of South Carolina about the lack of pay parity in our society and it's very negative and personal affect on her life and on the lives of many other women and their families. I think this is the real gender gap issue, one that needs to be addressed immediately.
I'd love to know what you think.
Posted by Kate Tinnan, WRC volunteer
Economic sustainability is a critical challenge faced by countless families hard hit by the nation's current financial state of affairs. Coupled with the anxiety and stress of struggling to maintain basic household needs delivers a one-two punch profoundly felt by women often multi-tasking as parent, caregiver, teacher, life coach and employee on and off the clock. Numbers suggesting a woman's willingness to ask for help does not necessarily speak to her inability to cope or understand but rather the polar opposite, her intelligent appreciation for and recognition of the need to become more educated and proactive to provide her family (and herself) with the tools needed to prevail in a less than comfortable economic climate.
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