Gender inequality in the wealth of older Canadians

Not wishing to encounter the problems associated with conflating the assets of men and women in couples, they focus their gender analysis on single women and men (never married, divorced or separated and widowed), masking the full extent of women’s positions (Warren, Rowlingson and Whyley, 2001). [...] Others, in the case of married respondents, focus on the ‘head of the household’ meaning the highest income earners (usually the male) and control for differences in spouse’s characteristics (Levine, Mitchell and Moore, 2000; Johnson, 1999). [...] Following this solution, we have attached the asset/wealth data from the family file to the respondent’s information so that both the respondent’s and the partner’s wealth (if there is one), as well as other possible member of the household with an income and net worth, are included. [...] Respondents reported the market value of the asset (i.e., the amount they could expect to receive if they had sold the asset at the time of the survey). [...] As shown in table 1, while women have about two-thirds the non-financial assets (including the value of their home) than men do, they have less than half the financial assets (including the value of their pensions and other financial assets).