(Finance) – Le gender inequalities in terms of salary and participation in the labor market are also reflected in thecredit access and in the propensity to indebtedness. On average, the women they tend to contract less debt than men, 37% of over-indebted women have three or more debts compared to 43% of indebted men, and they accrue lower liabilities, over 3,000 euros lower. A debt gender gap highlighted by the distribution by income bracket: more than one in four women earns less than a thousand euros a month; among these, approximately 20% earn between 500 and 1,000 euros, a percentage that drops to 7.7% among debtors.
There disparity it is further accentuated when the highest incomes are analysed: only 23.7% of indebted women earn between 1,500 and 2,500 euros per month, compared to 45.8% of men. Furthermore, 8.6% of indebted women are unemployed, almost double the 3.9% of men. These are some of the results of theObservatory on women’s indebtedness by Bravo – a fintech that operates in the management and settlement of private debts – which interviewed over 9 thousand people from its customer base in Italy to analyze the situation of women’s indebtedness in the country.
“The difficulty in placing themselves among the highest income brackets and finding stable employment has made women less inclined to get into debt than men: on the one hand the financial difficulty does not allow them to have guarantees and ask for loans, on the more and more women take out personal loans that they struggle to repay,” she explains Cristina Cervantes, Co-Country Manager of Bravo in Italy. “The increase in the cost of living consequently makes women particularly vulnerable, especially if they cannot count on a support network or if they have dependents. It is essential to intervene to prevent and address the problem of over-indebtedness, promoting financial education and greater awareness in the management of personal finances, providing financial, educational and professional support to reduce the gender gap in the labor market and in access to credit “.
From the Bravo Observatory it emerges that over six out of ten women find themselves managing only one or two debts, over five percentage points more than men. As the positions to be weldedhowever, the dynamic is reversed: 20.5% have three loans to repay, 10% have four, 6.9% have accrued five or more debts – i.e. between 1.2% and 2 .7% less than men.
The same trend is observed when analyzing the amount of female debt, equal on average to 22,600 eurosover 3 thousand euros less than the liabilities accrued by indebted men, which is around 26,000 euros. Also in this case, women are concentrated in the lowest debt brackets: 54.5% are under 20 thousand euros, compared to 46.6% for men, while among indebted men the incidence of the highest debt brackets is greater. In particular, approximately 20.5% of women have a debt between 20 thousand and 30 thousand euros, 18.6% between 30 thousand and 50 thousand and 6.5% over 50 thousand euros.
THE personal loans they cause debt in 75.9% of cases, but revolving cards are also frequent, indicated by 15.3% of those interviewed. Credit cards and bank overdrafts, however, are mentioned by 5.2% and 2.3% of over-indebted women respectively. This division reflects the variety of financial instruments used by people to meet immediate liquidity needs, but also highlights the need for prudent financial management to avoid the accumulation of debt.
The Observatory highlights some trends significant with respect to the issue of female indebtedness, outlining an overview at a national level. 84% of indebted Italian women are over 40 years old, one in three is aged between 50 and 59. 65.2% of the female sample analyzed has a permanent contract, a lower figure when compared to the 71.7% of the male gender, but which confirms the propensity to request loans when one can count on job stability. 43.4% are employed in commercial activities and services, followed by office workers (19.4%), and artisans and specialized workers (6.8%). 15.4% are retired, 8.6% are unemployed.
Analyzing the sample interviewed by Bravo on a geographical basis, the northern regions highlight a greater presence of indebted women (47.7% of the national total) compared to central (31%) and southern (21.3%) women, a condition linked to the presence of higher average incomes and greater job opportunities stable in these regions compared to the rest of Italy, with a consequent greater ease of access to credit. Most women in debt situations reside in Lombardy (17.1%), Lazio (12.9%) e Piedmont (9.6%). Followed by Emilia-Romagna (8.1%), Tuscany (7%), Veneto (6.7%) and Sicily (6.2%). On the contrary, Valle d’Aosta records the lowest percentage, with only 0.32% of women with debts to pay.