Financial literacy or financial education, according to the OECD, is that process where investors
and/or consumers enhance their cognitive skills related to the financial sphere, such as products,
concepts and especially risks, increasing their abilities in order to make wise choices, with the ultimate goal of
improving their economic well-being.
In the academic field, it can be said that financial literacy has had positive effects on the
behavior of individuals by strengthening the financial resilience of families, but in 2020, through
the IACOFI survey, it emerged that in Italy there is still a very low wealth education of our
population and even lower is the percentage of women and young people who are accompanied by such education,
reaching the black mark at European level.
The gap that exists between women and men is significant and is more accentuated in the South, one of
the main causes is the percentage of job loss higher among the former than among the latter.
Why are women late in approaching financial education?
It can be said that in Italy, financial literacy is still very lacking even in school
, in fact only one student in five has the minimum basis to be able to make
wise financial decisions.
This also has repercussions on the female world, in fact there is a Gender Gap (gap between the female and
male gender in the world) due not only to poor education, but also to a strong cultural lever that has
increasingly distanced the female world from the financial one.
An important example is the fact that one in ten women, still today, does not have a
current account, it is therefore thought that they have their finances managed directly by their partner or that they do not have their
own income, triggering a chain reaction with very different consequences, in fact it is estimated that
currently a percentage of 12.5% of women negotiate their salary when entering the company against
52% of men.
In the world of female entrepreneurship, data shows how a woman at the helm of a company finds it
more difficult, for example, to access credit; in short, the “Fingap” – a neologism that includes both
the word “finance” and the “Gender Gap” – is more alive than ever.
The Order of Psychologists of Lombardy recently drafted a dossier where women suffer
“economic violence”, insidious and destructive, which is the result of gender stereotypes, salaries and work that are always
very current and have a strong impact. The forms of economic discrimination limit the independence of the
female population.
What actions should be taken?
Various projects have been created nationwide to reiterate that the freedom of every woman is to
obtain economic independence, highlighting that an adequate level of education is not
a guarantee of greater experience at an economic level, but certainly helps to fill this gap.
Providing financial education is not easy because talking about “money”, one’s “money”, is almost never
simple because one does not fully understand the meaning of whether money is good or bad and the purpose of
its use.
It is important to focus on information interventions at a national level and training initially focused
on teachers who will have the opportunity to pass on this financial knowledge among the various students, in fact
approximately 80% of the teaching population is made up of women, therefore a particularly interesting user base
.
According to Almalaurea, women graduate in economic subjects and beyond, much faster
than men and with a higher degree grade, so why stop them during their working life?
Let’s break down stereotypes and prejudices in order for everyone to have greater financial awareness with a
better economic return, in the name of 360-degree financial professionalism.
By
Marilena Mazzeo