This paper relates to research that was commissioned to identify cultural and ethnic factors that might inhibit the ability of women to accumulate net worth. The research has been conducted by the Fin-Ed Centre, Massey University.
Many of the factors thought to disadvantage a woman’s ability to accumulate net worth are universal. Issues such as pay structures, breaks in earning and single parenting are not the preserve of any culture. However, the fi nancial well-being of ethnic women in New Zealand can also be affected by traditional values, roles and expectations. There is often a tension between these and “Western” ways of doing things, particularly in respect of retirement savings.
“Ethnic women” for this report are defi ned as ‘women belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition’ and for the purpose of this research includes women who have identified themselves from the Asian and Asia-Pacifi c background.
Key Results
Some women in the study have shown how they have adapted to living in New Zealand and have negotiated new ways of fi nancially and emotionally investing in the well-being of their families as well as providing for their own fi nancial security. These arrangements often refl ect a mix of cultures - the traditional and the new, culture from homeland and culture from adopted land. For other women, having to meet traditional obligations as well as to meet the fi nancial expectations of life in New Zealand places a heavy burden on their immediate and future fi nancial security. Significant, common themes arising from the research were:
- Inter-generational change: The financial practices of all participants varied from those of their mothers, and the members of the next generation also have different expectations and obligations towards their parents’ generation. These changes have the potential to leave women without the financial support in retirement they had expected.
- Intra-generational change: Increasing pressure for financial matters to be managed at the level of the family or the individual, rather than more collectively. Women born in New Zealand have added expectations placed on them – to be financially responsible, yet no appropriate financial knowledge is provided due to parent’s own lack of such knowledge in some cases.
Participants in the study called for women from ethnic cultures to be more aware of their personal responsibility for accumulating net worth, to understand New Zealand law, in particular property law, and to have adequate levels of fi nancial literacy. They talked about the need to include husbands, sons, brothers and parents in a conversation that renegotiated roles and expectations within the boundaries of agreed cultural values and financial realities. There was also a call to provide culturally appropriate investment schemes for women whose religions place limits on the manner in which they can invest - such as Islamic tradition.
“We do not need more financial information. We need financial wisdom to help us redefine our relationship to money and create lives in alignment with our deepest values.” (Manisha Thakor, MoneyZen Wealth Management).