Financial Issues of Women

Abstract

Women face a broad range of financial issues. These can be categorized as follows: (1) women’s financial literacy is lower than men’s, but women are aware of the deficit and are more likely to seek professional financial advice; (2) women’s investment behavior is influenced by emotional and behavioral factors that can benefit or hurt investment outcomes; (3) women within couples are more involved in financial decisions when their age, education, and income are similar to their husbands’; (4) low-income women try to make ends meet by combining high-cost lending with less accessible mainstream financial products; (5) poverty among older women is particularly challenging, and adversely affects their mental and physical health; (6) beyond the western world, microfinance interventions have led to women’s empowerment and that empowerment has led to their assuming greater roles in economic decision-making.