Gender Differences in Student Financial Market Attitudes and Awareness: An Exploratory Study

Female college students are generally thought to possess lower levels of financial market knowledge than their male counterparts. However, previous studies have lacked conceptual and methodological focus on market-based dimensions of financial literacy. We hypothesize that male and female college students respond differently to perceptions of threat emanating from financial markets. Findings from an exploratory test suggested that female college students were more intimidated by, and less interested in, markets compared with their male counterparts. Women also possessed lower levels of financial market awareness. These findings persisted after controlling for numerous demographic factors, suggesting a latent factor that may uniquely account for a significant amount of affective and cognitive diversity.