Exploring recent increases in the gender wealth gap among Australia’s single households

Abstract

This study uses three wealth modules from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to explore the gender wealth gap for single Australian households between 2002 and 2010. The findings indicate a significant gender wealth gap, which has increased over the 8 years explored. Most of the increase in the wealth gap was associated with a relatively rapid increase in the value of housing assets by single men over the study period. The findings of this study challenge a wider literature that tends to emphasise that men are more prepared to invest in ‘risky’ assets such as shares and that their higher wealth is due to these investment strategies. Instead, this study emphasises how, in the Australian context at least, it was higher growth rates in the value of housing assets owned by single men that improved their wealth position relative to single women over the last decade.

Keywords

Assets Australia gender portfolio composition wealth

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Austen

Jefferson

Ong

(2014) The gender gap in financial security: what we know and don’t know about Australian households. Feminist Economics 20(3): 25–52.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2013) Average weekly earnings, Australia. Cat. no. 6302.0, May.

Bertocchi

Brunetti

Torricelli

(2008) Portfolio choices, gender and marital status. Rivista di Politica Economica 98(5): 119–154.

Bloxham

Betts

(2009) Measures of household wealth for Australia. Australian Economic Review 42(2): 217–231.

Bolin

Palsson

(2001) Male and female wealth: the importance of the family structure. Prepared for the 21st Arne Ryde symposium on non-human wealth and capital accumulation, Department of Economics, Lund University, Lund, 23–25 August.

Deere

Doss

(2006) The gender asset gap: what do we know and why does it matter. Feminist Economics 12(1–2): 1–50.

Denton

Boos

(2007) The gender wealth gap: structural and material constraints and implications for later life. Journal of Women & Aging 19(3–4): 105–120.

De Silva

Wood

(2011) Melbourne house prices: safe as houses? In: Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology blog post, 30 May. Available at: http://raws.adc.rmit.edu.au/~e81843/blog2/?p=417 (accessed 27 August 2014).

Headey

Marks

Wooden

(2005) The structure and distribution of wealth in Australia. Australian Economic Review 38: 159–175.

10.

Jefferson

(2005) Women and retirement incomes in Australia: a review. Economic Record 81(254): 273–294.

11.

Parr

Ferris

Mahuteau

(2007) The impact of children on Australian women’s and men’s superannuation. Economic and Labour Relations Review 18(1): 3–26.

12.

Schmidt

Sevak

(2006) Gender, marriage, and asset accumulation in the United States. Feminist Economics 12(1–2): 139–166.

13.

Sierminska

Frick

Grabka

(2010) Examining the gender wealth gap. Oxford Economic Papers 62(4): 669–690.

14.

Smith

(1990) Income, housing wealth, and gender inequality. Urban Studies 27(1): 67–88.

15.

Warren

(2006) Moving beyond the gender wealth gap: On gender, class, ethnicity, and wealth inequalities in the United Kingdom. Feminist Economics 12(1): 195–219.

16.

Warren

Rowlingson

Whyley

(2001) Female finances: gender wage gaps and gender assets gaps. Work, Employment & Society 15(3): 465–488.

17.

Wood

Ong

(2011) Factors shaping the dynamics of housing affordability in Australia 2001–2006. Housing Studies 26(7–8): 1105–1127.

18.

Yamokoski

Keister

(2006) The wealth of single women: Marital status and parenthood in the asset accumulation of young baby boomers in the United States. Feminist Economics 12(1): 167–194.