MotivationWomen are especially vulnerable to not being able to cover the costs of living or to meet sudden demands for funds to pay for emergencies (financial vulnerability). The COVID‐19 pandemic put additional stress on household incomes and the ability to meet emergency expenses, thereby bringing into sharp relief women's lack of inclusion in formal financial systems, and the gender gaps between them and men.PurposeHow financially vulnerable are women in Latin America? What causes vulnerability? How do financial inclusion, personality traits, cognitive characteristics, and financial literacy effect financial vulnerability?Methods and approachUsing Financial Capabilities Surveys, we use regression to model the determinants of an index of financial vulnerability for eight countries of Latin America — Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru. We use Oaxaca‐Blinder decomposition to establish the extent to which the gender arises from the different characteristics of men and women, or from the way in which such characteristics affect groups.FindingsWe find a gender gap in financial vulnerability in most of the eight countries. The individual characteristics that often explain this gap are socioeconomic, such as belonging to a low socioeconomic class and not having a regular income. In addition to gender and socioeconomic characteristics, use of savings products, some personality traits (tendency to plan, self‐control), economic preferences, and numeracy skills also drive financial vulnerability.Policy implicationsInterventions to reduce financial vulnerability need to address, first and foremost, socioeconomic conditions: people on low incomes will always be financially vulnerable. In addition, programmes to widen financial inclusion and to educate people on finances can help. Given significant gender gaps, more effort must be made to reduce such gaps in education, employment and social norms.