Citing concerns about the particular challenges facing women when it comes to finances, New Brunswick’s Financial and Consumer Services Commission (FCNB) is looking to step up its financial literacy efforts for women.
The provincial regulator said it’s launching a survey later this month to learn more about women’s financial literacy needs and challenges.
“As research indicates women continue to face systemic and societal barriers — especially post-pandemic — to financial resilience, the [FCNB] is aiming to develop targeted and data-based educational content to help them,” the regulator said in a release.
It’s been well documented that women were particularly hard hit by the pandemic, given its impact on industry sectors that employ higher proportions of women and the fact that childcare — which was severely disrupted — tends to fall more heavily on women.
Citing data from Statistics Canada, the FCNB said that, even after schools reopened, “70% of mothers were still working less than half of their usual pre-pandemic hours, and many have still not returned to work.”
The regulator said that improving financial literacy for women is one way to help narrow the gender gap.
“Financial resilience is achieved when you have the skills, confidence and knowledge to make smart financial decisions in good times and bad,” said Marissa Sollows, director of education and communications at the FCNB, in a release.
“Due to the specific challenges that women face, a one-size-fits-all approach to financial literacy doesn’t cut it for them,” she added.
Alongside its research efforts, the FCNB will co-host an event on Nov. 24 to discuss financial resilience and gender-based issues.
“Women play a big role in our economy, accounting for 42% of income earned in Canada last year. We want to continue to see that number grow and we hope that participating in these activities will give us some insight into how we can help foster financial resiliency among women,” Sollows said.