Are Women Empowered to Save?

• Main Authors: Frances Woolley, Taylor Shek-wai Hui, Carole Vincent
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law 2013-12-01
• Series: Oñati Socio-Legal Series
• Subjects: Gender; saving; family decision-making; investment; Género; ahorro; toma de decisiones familiares; inversión
• Online Access: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2371112

<p>Female economic empowerment &ndash; rising earnings, increased opportunities, greater labour force participation &ndash; has given many women the means to save. The shifting of responsibility for retirement security from employers and governments onto individuals has given women a reason to save. But are women actually saving? In this paper, we explore the relationship between the gender dynamics within a family and the accumulation of wealth. We find that little evidence in support of the conventional wisdom that families with a female financial manager save more and repay their debts more often. We find some evidence that male financial management leads to greater savings, and other evidence suggesting that savings patterns have a complex relationship with intra-family gender dynamics.</p> <hr /><p>El empoderamiento econ&oacute;mico de la mujer &ndash; el aumento de los ingresos, mayores oportunidades, mayor participaci&oacute;n laboral &ndash; ha dado a muchas mujeres los medios para ahorrar. Al pasar la responsabilidad de los ingresos de la jubilaci&oacute;n de los empleadores y el gobierno a los individuos ha dado a las mujeres un motivo para ahorrar. &iquest;Pero realmente ahorran las mujeres? En este art&iacute;culo se analizan las relaciones entre las din&aacute;micas de g&eacute;nero en una familia, y la acumulaci&oacute;n de riqueza. Se ha llegado a la conclusi&oacute;n de que hay poca evidencia que apoye la creencia convencional de que las familias en las que una mujer gestiona las financias ahorran m&aacute;s y devuelven sus cr&eacute;ditos m&aacute;s frecuentemente. Se ha encontrado alguna evidencia de que la gesti&oacute;n financiera por varones acarrea mayores ahorros, y otras evidencias que sugieren que los patrones de ahorro tienen una relaci&oacute;n compleja con las din&aacute;micas de g&eacute;nero dentro de la familia.