Rethinking the ‘girls are worse with money’ myth

Photo caption: Dr Stephen Agnew, Department of Economics and Finance, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury.

New research led by Dr Stephen Agnew from Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury’s (UC) Department of Economics and Finance is challenging one of the most persistent assumptions in education and everyday culture, that teenage girls are less financially literate than boys.

“We analysed data from around 350 Year 11 to 13 students across Aotearoa New Zealand high schools, with an almost even split between male and female students,” Dr Agnew says.

Students completed a financial literacy test alongside measures of cognitive ability including Raven’s matrices and a number line estimator.  Dr Agnew says on those two measures, boys and girls performed very similarly. 

“The key difference emerged in a separate measure called the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT), which includes questions designed to test whether people pause and reflect rather than answering with the first intuitive response.” 

He says it was the CRT result that accounted for the gender difference seen in the financial literacy test in this sample.

“You need to think carefully about what you're actually measuring when you're doing these financial literacy tests; are we measuring financial literacy or are we measuring some other skill in a financial context?”

The research also raises a wider issue about stereotypes and self-perception. If girls repeatedly see test results framed as a shortfall, it risks reinforcing the idea that they are “bad with money” even when the measurement itself may be too narrow.

Dr Agnew says the gender gap matters.  “Financial wellbeing shapes life outcomes. It goes back to females not being financially well off in their retirement,” he says. Women live longer on average and are now more likely to experience relationship changes, making independent financial capability crucial. 

But he cautions against simplistic conclusions. “Having financially capable youth is not just about teaching them how to work out compound interest in a class,” he says. “It really is a lot more about the environment — home influences, friends, stereotypes and perceptions — as well as knowledge.”

The language itself is evolving. “The terminology used now is financial capability,” Dr Agnew says. “There’s a recognition that actually the important stuff is behaviour.”

This approach is reflected in FutureFX, a coordinated, region-wide initiative launching in Marlborough to strengthen financial capability among young people. The multi-year programme will work with 30 schools and approximately 7,000 students, with ambitions to scale nationally.

Working alongside parents, whānau, teachers and schools, the initiative recognises that financial behaviours are shaped early. “If you want to get actual change in capability and behaviour,” Dr Agnew says, “it’s not just knowledge, it’s the influences around young people that matter.” 

Dr Agnew will discuss these themes at the FutureFX Launch Event on Tuesday 17 March 2026, 5.30–7.30pm at Lansdowne Hub in Blenheim.