Education, Legal, Property & Finance

Education, Legal, Property & Finance

fB_hMNTSnklVbnSTSDUdLNAXwo0ovRwWIne1UA2o-8AAccess to finance

Women are less likely than men to have formal bank accounts. In developing economies, women are 20% less likely than men to have an account at a formal financial institution, and 17% less likely to have borrowed formally in the past year. Access to formal finance is an important tool for opening up further economic opportunities for women: it offers possibilities for saving and collecting income, growing businesses, and breaking the poverty cycle.

A lack of financial education is a large barrier to women accessing formal finance. The gender gap in financial literacy is persistent across all regions of the world. Financial education provides the necessary tools for understanding financial services and therefore accessing the opportunities afforded by formal lending and saving.


Property and legal rights

On average, women comprise 43% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries, however own less than a quarter of agricultural land holdings in these regions. This disparity can be partially attributed to differences in the legal rights afforded to men and women. A World Bank report has found that only 38 of the 141 covered economies set out equal legal rights for women and men across 45 indictors, including the ability to access, own, manage control and inherit property. In countries with a legal gender gap in property rights, female ownership and control over property was significantly lower.

In developing countries, the gender asset gap can undermine a women’s bargaining power and capacity to engage in economic activity because access to formal credit relies heavily on asset-based lending. Education enables women to learn about their legal and property rights, as well as puts them in a position to earn the money to purchase or control property.

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