Why the Gender Dummy Doesn’t Speak: Explaining the Gender Gap in Financial Inclusion - Dr. Susan Johnson, Senior Lecturer in International Development, University of Bath

Recent research has given us much better data on the difference in access to formal financial services between men and women. With this evidence for the gender gap, what we really want to know is: what is it about being a woman or man that creates the gap? That is, are these gaps the result of factors such as women having less education, lower incomes, and being less likely to have formal employment? Or do they arise from legal factors such as property rights, inheritance rights, gender norms about autonomy, mobility, etc.? Or, perhaps women behave inherently differently and are more risk averse. Or does being a woman matter for another reason, even when all these factors are taken into account? If it does, then we might need to look further for other sources of discrimination in the market. These might include the behaviour of the financial institutions themselves.