Effect Of Gender On Financial Literacy In Nairobi County
Abstract
Women have lower knowledge level making it difficult for them to perform financial
calculations which eventually hinders their ability to make responsible financial
decisions. In patrilineal communities, men are the bread weaners and know from early
childhood that they will lead household financial decisions. In such societies, men are
highly likely to have superior financial knowledge. The research objective was to
ascertain the effect that gender has on financial literacy in Kenya. The particular
objectives were to identify difference in the financial literacy levels of men and women
and to investigate the extent to which gender affect financial literacy. The study was
informed by gender schema theory, theory of planned behavior and prospect theory.
The study utilized a descriptive research design. 2,192,452 males and 2,204,376
females formed the target population of the study. A sample of 191 men and 193 women
was derived by utilizing the Cochran formula. The research made use of primary
sources of data majorly with the utilization of a closed ended questionnaires as the study
data collection tool. This was a cross-sectional study. The study applied both
descriptive statistics as well as inferential statistics that entailed multiple linear
regression analysis. A multivariate analysis was employed, each dependent variable
was regressed against the independent variables. Ordinal regression was done for the
first two models entailing financial attitude and financial behaviour as the respective
response variables because the analysis technique predicts an ordinal dependent
variable. For the third model entailing financial knowledge as the response variable, a
multinomial logistic regression was utilized because the analysis technique is used to
predict a nominal dependent variable. The study findings established that the financial
literacy aspects entailing financial attitude, behaviour, and knowledge were exhibited
to a very large extent among individuals living in Nairobi County. Another finding was
that being a female would lead to poorer financial behaviour. The study also revealed
that people living with partners are more likely to have better financial behaviour than
people who are divorced/separated. Further study findings were that the background
and demographic characteristics do not significantly influence the financial literacy
aspects entailing financial literacy and therefore cannot significantly predict financial
literacy. Policy recommendations are made to the Kenyan Ministry of Public Service
and Gender to identify and implement gender sensitive financial literacy training
programs accommodating the distinct characteristics and challenges of genders.
Recommendations are also made to curriculum and education policy makers to make
personal finance a required course in learning which will significantly equip the female
gender with fundamental knowledge and skills to prosper in modern financial
environment. Recommendations are made to the general Kenyan community to
increase the literacy levels of the female gender because elevating gender financial
literacy differences by instituting interventions will help in bettering the society as a
whole. Finally, rrecommendations are also made to employers to boost financial
literacy levels among the female gender by for instance, organizing seminar-based
programs that are of an interactive nature; seminars on retirement which can promote
accumulation of wealth and cushion financial insecurity in retirement as this will in turn
boost employee productivity.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Subject
Financial LiteracyRights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- School of Business [1556]
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