Ask Melanie | How is financial planning different for women?
Melanie Nutbeam, a certified financial planner based in Hong Kong, addresses common personal finance queries. Send your questions to [email protected]
Women generally earn less than men, earn over shorter periods, and live longer. This means they face greater challenges accumulating the wealth needed for financial security throughout retirement.
Women face universal disadvantages in terms of lower pay and gender-stereotyping of jobs. Age, education and cultural disparity also affect their income.
Timed for International Women's Day on Friday, the Civic Exchange has issued three reports profiling women from 15 to 60 years.
The report notes that free, compulsory schooling for women only came to Hong Kong in the 1970s. Education, particularly at the tertiary level, is a huge predictor of financial success. The substandard wealth of Hong Kong women over 60 reflects the low priority given to education in previous decades.
Women in the older age groups still earn about 30 per cent less than men and hold fewer senior positions in the private, public and academic sectors. Income differentials between twenty- and thirty-something men and women decline but do not disappear, perhaps as a result of gender-driven occupational variances.