Men, Women and Debt
New research from the Fawcett Society, the UK’s leading campaign for equality between women and men, has revealed an apparent paradox: that men owe twice as much money as women, but women still struggle more with debt.
This paradox is particularly acute among younger women. In the 16-24 year-old age range, women’s median debt is £3,000, compared to men’s £5000. But women in this age group are almost twice as likely to be in arrears (behind on one or more bills, including rent, utilities, loans or credit agreements) with 13% in arrears compared to 7% of men in the same age group.
Key findings
- Men owe twice as much money as women, but women are more likely to struggle with debt
- Women are more likely to use ‘sub-prime’ credit than men - credit which is easier to access, but costs more in interest rates
- Four groups of women who have particularly high levels of debt problems; young women, lone mothers, women who have gone through relationship breakdown, and black and mixed race women
- Although young women have high levels of debt and problems with debt, they still owe less than young men and are slightly more likely to have savings
Causes of the problem
There is a wide-spread image of young women with debt being due to ‘frivolous’ spending, in particular on clothes.
Although the pressure to maintain social status through consumer spending is likely to play a factor in young women’s debt, Fawcett believes the image of young women as being irresponsible with money has been overplayed, since the research found that similar numbers of young women and young men have credit or store cards, that young women are also slightly more likely to be saving than young men and that women are more likely to be using forms of credit that are associated with poverty.
Other factors in the gap between young women and men to cope with debt are: Young women have lower incomes than young men; the gap is small at first, but grows to 15% by age 25 Young women’s debt is more likely to be associated with poverty than young men’s debt.
Check out the research at www.fawcettsociety.org.uk
Written by Sue Rinaldi.
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