Guess Which Sex is More Stressed About Money

Women are more stressed about money than men, according to survey conducted Financial Finnesse and reported in Bloomberg. Thirty percent of women have “high levels of anxiety” about money, versus 17 percent of men, and nine percent of women have “overwhelming financial stress,” versus just three percent of men.

What could possibly account for this difference? Could it be the persistent gender pay gap that gives women just 80 cents for every dollar a man makes? Could it be that our culture raises women to aim lower and make less money right from the start? Or that we are encouraged at every turn to spend money on hair, makeup, and clothes?

Analysts at Financial Finesse attribute the stress-gap to difference in psychology. One analyst suggested that perhaps men are “more confident than they should be.” Another financial psychologist suggested that “women feel more distressed than men do if they cannot provide what they want to provide for their children.”

Also important? The same survey found that women “remain significantly behind men with respect to basic money management skills.” Might that lead to stress, given that it takes basic money management skills to keep one’s money, to save one’s money, and to make one’s money turn into more money? Why, yes, it might. A psychologist notes that “there is a kind of gender gap between feeling stressed about money and actually making behavioral changes” and that “men tend to be more action-oriented.” That makes sense, given that men are encourage to have the confidence and the know-how to run their money, where as women are taught, you know, just to find a good man.

Are you stressed about money? Do you think your gender has anything to do with it?

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