The Money Charity believes that our message of bringing financial capability and wellbeing is for everyone, whatever their age, gender, background or situation, and are committed to seeing this become ever more the reality for people across the UK. To mark this year’s International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to release our newly updated Women and Financial Wellbeing policy paper, which you can read below.
In our financial capability work we recognise the particular experiences of women – those that relate to gender inequalities, career and life choices, relationships and families. For example:
- What is the real financial impact (on pay progression, National Insurance, pensions, savings, home ownership) of taking time out to raise a family?
- What is the effect of the average pay gap between men and women on financial capability?
- How can unhelpful stereotypes about men, women and money be reduced and replaced with affirmative images?
Most of our workshops are delivered to mixed gender groups, but we recognise the need for women-only workshops for issues that are sensitive or best treated in women-only discussions. For example, where the client is an organisation working with women from a particular cultural background.
We design our content with our clients, guided by the following principles:
Financial wellbeing initiatives should:
- Recognise the particular experiences of women and the structural issues facing them.
- Show awareness of the financial arrangements in relationships, families and households, for example decision-making about bank accounts, credit cards and the household budget, responsibility for care, lending and borrowing within the household, responsibility for debts, sharing of income and resources, savings, investments and inheritance.
- Throw a light on what it means to be out of the paid workforce for a period of time in terms of lifetime asset accumulation (savings, pensions, housing equity, National Insurance[1] etc) and empower women to take compensating actions, such as topping up their NI years, increasing pension-saving rates, pursuing higher-paid work or negotiating better deals with their partners.
- Enable women to adopt positive financial aspirations and gain confidence in the financial skills they have.
- Help change adverse gendered financial stereotypes.
In mixed-gender learning situations, we make sure women are able to participate equally and have their voices heard. We also explore ways of having appropriate conversations with partners and families about sensitive financial issues.
If you would like to discuss working with us, please fill out the simple enquiry form here.
We would be delighted to discuss with you the needs of your organisation and develop a workshop or programme of workshops appropriate to your staff, members or colleagues.
You can also find out more about our work throughout our website, or by following us on social media (all links on the lower right-hand corner of this page.)
[1] For example, making sure the rules on topping up National Insurance and the relationship between Child Benefit and National Insurance are understood.