Can finance education in schools help close the gender pay gap?

Young people can be overnight entrepreneurs and big-time money earners through the influencer network and a whole host of new-age jobs. Yet finance education in schools seems to be stuck in the same place it was 40 years ago…

That is, it’s non-existent.

A fear of finance, passed down from generation to generation, with no one intervening or explaining the facts from the myths, has proven to be very dangerous.

Topics such as payslips, debt and pensions are not only interesting and relatable but essential. If you don’t know what a payslip should look like, how will you know if yours is correct? If you don’t know the worth of work, how will you measure yours when it comes to pushing for that promotion?

With finance education, we can start to eliminate the gender pay gap. The next generation can be empowered to tackle everything, from the basics to the big stuff, with confidence. All genders are part of the solution to eradicating the gap however, teaching the girls of today what salary they should be on, and the benefits of things like pensions can have a massive, positive impact on the women of tomorrow.

100 years. That is the statistic of how long it will take to eradicate the gender pay gap. A lack of financial knowledge will only amplify this. If you’re fearful of – or deprived from – exploring your financial rights and educational possibilities, how can you start to battle such an unfair situation?

Finance education, given by qualified professionals with a passion for helping others understand the world of numbers, could help close that gap sooner. And while implementing finance education is just one part of a complex puzzle, it could provide positive externalities across generations.