in the couple, it is mainly the women who take care of managing the budget

If the majority of French women believe they are in charge of money issues in the daily life of the couple, few of them know all the ways to invest their savings, according to an Ifop survey on the relationship of women to money.

Is money a taboo subject for women? Do the French easily talk about this subject? These questions were asked by Ifop (for Bayard) to 1,000 women in France, for a survey published on July 13, 2022 (1).

A first point quickly emerges: the woman is often at the helm on the question of money in the couple. Thereby, 70% of respondents believe that they are the ones who deal the most with budgetary aspects and finances within the household. In this context, 75% of the women surveyed admit to consulting their bank accounts at least once a week. They are even 33% do it once a day.

French women easily talk about money

It is therefore not surprising that 92% of French women confirm that they talk about money with their spouse, when 80% also talk about it with their friends. Another point noted by the survey, the knowledge of the French women questioned concerning their income. 91% of them know the amount of their income and 85% know what they have in savings.

While these results may suggest a more relaxed relationship with money and a form of female emancipation on this subject (the term freedom is the first word associated by the probes with money), they must however be qualified. In the end, women’s budget management is limited mainly to aspects related to the home, analyze the authors of the survey.

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the question what would you do if you received an unexpected large sum of money?, 40% of respondents would invest in a savings account or passbook, when 36% would use this money for the household (house layout, holidays, car, leisure…). Conversely, only 13% would put this money in a retirement savings plan or life insurance, and 4% would invest or buy shares.

As for the savings products they have, while 79% of those questioned confirm that they have a savings account, only 15% have a Retirement Savings Plan (PER) and as many have shares. As for crypto-assets, the share of female holders drops to 3%.

The level of knowledge with regard to these various financial products is also fairly low (with less than a third of women seeing exactly what is involved for each of the products tested). Reading the results, we therefore have the feeling that the ratio of women still fits into a fairly traditional pattern. If they have acquired a form of emancipation in the management of budgetary aspects on a daily basis, this management is still limited to aspects relating to the home and only slightly concerns investments, analyze the authors of the survey.

(1) The survey was conducted among a national sample of 1,001 women aged 18 and over. The representativeness of the sample was ensured by the quota method (age, profession of the person questioned) after stratification by region and category of agglomeration. The interviews were carried out by self-administered online questionnaire from June 7 to 13, 2022.

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