Exploring Recent Increases in the Gender Wealth Gap Among Australia’s Single Households

This study uses three wealth modules from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to explore the gender wealth gap for single Australian households between 2002 and 2010. The findings indicate a significant gender wealth gap, which has increased over the 8 years explored. Most...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Austen, Siobhan, Ong, Rachel, Bawa, Sherry, Jefferson, Therese
Format: Journal Article
Published: Sage Publications Ltd. 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39174
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author Austen, Siobhan
Ong, Rachel
Bawa, Sherry
Jefferson, Therese
author_facet Austen, Siobhan
Ong, Rachel
Bawa, Sherry
Jefferson, Therese
author_sort Austen, Siobhan
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This study uses three wealth modules from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to explore the gender wealth gap for single Australian households between 2002 and 2010. The findings indicate a significant gender wealth gap, which has increased over the 8 years explored. Most of the increase in the wealth gap was associated with a relatively rapid increase in the value of housing assets by single men over the study period. The findings of this study challenge a wider literature that tends to emphasise that men are more prepared to invest in ‘risky’ assets such as shares and that their higher wealth is due to these investment strategies. Instead, this study emphasises how, in the Australian context at least, it was higher growth rates in the value of housing assets owned by single men that improved their wealth position relative to single women over the last decade.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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last_indexed 2025-11-14T08:57:36Z
publishDate 2014
publisher Sage Publications Ltd.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-391742017-09-13T14:24:47Z Exploring Recent Increases in the Gender Wealth Gap Among Australia’s Single Households Austen, Siobhan Ong, Rachel Bawa, Sherry Jefferson, Therese Assets wealth gender Australia portfolio composition This study uses three wealth modules from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to explore the gender wealth gap for single Australian households between 2002 and 2010. The findings indicate a significant gender wealth gap, which has increased over the 8 years explored. Most of the increase in the wealth gap was associated with a relatively rapid increase in the value of housing assets by single men over the study period. The findings of this study challenge a wider literature that tends to emphasise that men are more prepared to invest in ‘risky’ assets such as shares and that their higher wealth is due to these investment strategies. Instead, this study emphasises how, in the Australian context at least, it was higher growth rates in the value of housing assets owned by single men that improved their wealth position relative to single women over the last decade. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39174 10.1177/1035304614556040 Sage Publications Ltd. restricted
spellingShingle Assets
wealth
gender
Australia
portfolio composition
Austen, Siobhan
Ong, Rachel
Bawa, Sherry
Jefferson, Therese
Exploring Recent Increases in the Gender Wealth Gap Among Australia’s Single Households
title Exploring Recent Increases in the Gender Wealth Gap Among Australia’s Single Households
title_full Exploring Recent Increases in the Gender Wealth Gap Among Australia’s Single Households
title_fullStr Exploring Recent Increases in the Gender Wealth Gap Among Australia’s Single Households
title_full_unstemmed Exploring Recent Increases in the Gender Wealth Gap Among Australia’s Single Households
title_short Exploring Recent Increases in the Gender Wealth Gap Among Australia’s Single Households
title_sort exploring recent increases in the gender wealth gap among australia’s single households
topic Assets
wealth
gender
Australia
portfolio composition
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39174