Gender features of developing financial literacy of Russian university students

Abstract

The article shows the relevance of studying gender differences in the formation of financial literacy of student youth. A review of studies on various aspects of the formation of financial literacy of Russians is given. In particular, student youth as a group of the population that makes up the development potential of Russia was considered. The article justifies the need to study the processes of forming financial literacy of student youth during their studies based on the future roles and tasks of the life of men and women in Russia. There are identified the main factors that form financial literacy of Russian university students: setting life goals and priorities for life activities of youth; planning and implementation of personal student budget; culture of financial behavior. It has been established that the student youth of Russian universities for the most part has significant reserves to improve the financial literacy. The differences in students’ gender characteristics — male and female — in the process of forming their financial literacy are presented. In particular, girls, due to a more responsible approach to education, are ready to spend additional time for their development in the financial sphere by attending elective classes. Female students (55.4%) are more interested in studying personal budget planning technologies and are more confident in the importance of forming their life goals already at the stage of studying at the university, while more than half of male students (53.5%) do not even think about forming life goals. Female students are more focused on strict accounting of income and expenses, among male students the practice of maintaining clear accounting of income and expenses is less common: 23.5% of them do not keep records, do not know how much money they had and how much was spent for a month. Female students are almost one and a half times more likely than male students first to postpone something for large purchases, and to spend the remained money on current needs. 46.7% of students do not save money, among them there are four times more boys than girls. The identified gender features should be used in organizing the educational process in universities, within teaching disciplines aimed at forming the universal competence of students — economic culture, including financial literacy.