Christine Yu of NGO Girls Just Wanna Have Fund$, and Lucinda Pike of Enrich discuss the financial barriers women face
“Financial literacy can be life-saving,” says Lucinda Pike, executive director of award-winning economic empowerment NGO Enrich. “Think about a woman who is in an abusive relationship: if she has financial literacy and the knowledge of control and choice over her money, she can leave [that] relationship. At Enrich, I see the power of that for women, who are able to change the trajectory of their lives. Financial literacy is a life skill which women do not have enough access to.”
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Limited financial literacy is not the purview of only those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Christine Yu, the co-founder of financial education platform Sophia, spent more than a decade working in global banking, advising companies, hedge funds, asset managers and pension funds on money matters, yet that didn’t mean she felt as comfortable and confident when it came to her own finances.
“There was this assumption that I didn’t need to focus on my own education,” says Yu. “The reality is, for a lot of women in finance, [there’s a feeling of ] ‘I should know this stuff ’ and it’s not the case, because it’s a very different thing to be thinking about it for yourself.”
“Across the wealth stratum, [financial literacy] is still not something that is perceived as essential. [But,] if you don’t have this knowledge, you can’t have a full, healthy life across all fronts,” continues Yu. She ultimately wants to see the topic being taught in schools, and financial products and services that target a younger market, such as custodial accounts and children’s savings bonds, made more widely available in Asia, so that individuals can begin their financial literacy journeys earlier.
Pike adds: “Financial literacy is a need-to-have. It’s really important that everyone recognises that it’s a life skill.” This is especially true for women, who typically earn less and live longer than men, while also often having longer breaks from their working lives, taking on caring responsibilities and having less access to financial information and resources.