a lack of knowledge of basic financial concepts and lack of confidence are likely to reduce womens ability to access and use appropriate financial products and opportunities it may also reduce their ability to set up a small business build up emergency savings save for retirement and choose the best financial products for their needs women need to improve their financial literacy even more than men in order to address the challenges they face in achieving financial wellbeing oecd the oecdinfe data collection in provided a first international comparison of gender difference in financial knowledge for countries atkinson and messy oecd while the oecdinfe survey covered some countries and economies oecd figure shows the difference in the percentage of men and women who can correctly answer at least five questions out of seven on financial knowledge