Women and Finances: Exploring the Place of Women in the Chilean Financial Education Programs

Abstract

This article explores the suppositions that financial education programs in Chile have on the financial behavior of low-income women. For this purpose, through a documentary analysis of the National Strategy for Financial Education (ENEF) and a series of interviews with different actors involved in the financial education program, we seek to explain how the intervention considers the role of women in the financial space, exploring the assumptions that guide the methodologies deployed in the intervention. Our results are divided in two: first, we explore the assumptions of the ENEF and the reasons that make women its priority audience; emphasizing the diagnosis, the assigned roles and the expected behavioral changes. Second, we explore the intervention methodology to account for how, through the teaching of savings and planning skills, women are expected to improve their financial skills and those of their household. We discuss how gender roles persist in these intervention spaces and the importance of incorporating feminist perspectives to think about emancipatory interventions.