In Australia, women are significantly less financially literate than men – leading to housing vulnerability, limited opportunities and trapping women in cycles of abuse. Dr Natalie Oh says financial education is critical to closing this gap.
You can’t drive a car without a licence or practice medicine without qualifications. Yet when it comes to managing money – something that impacts every part of our lives – most people in Australia receive no formal education.
And for women, this can have devastating consequences.
"We live in a society where money talks," says Dr Natalie Oh, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Senior Lecturer in the School of Banking and Finance at UNSW Business School.
“Financial literacy is not optional; it is the foundation of financial inclusion and equal opportunity. And importantly, it can provide safety.”
Dr Oh’s recent workshop at UNSW's Building Futures Through Gender Equity and Reform event showed how financial education can become a preventative measure against gendered violence.
In Australia, only 48% of women are financially literate, compared to 65% of men. Many women stay in abusive relationships because they lack the financial independence to leave safely. Those that leave often become vulnerable to homelessness. In fact, single women between 45 and 55 years are now the fastest-growing group of people at risk of housing insecurity.
Often having to take career breaks to care for children or elderly parents means women miss out on critical income and superannuation contributions. This financial gap makes them more vulnerable when they become financially self-reliant.
Dr Oh believes financial literacy can addresses this directly. Teaching people how to protect themselves – from learning about spousal super contributions and tax rebates to understanding compounding interest – before they find themselves trapped
“People need to be aware and educated,” Dr Oh says.
“I want them to be realistic, set goals, and be able to do the calculations that will get them there. To understand how much they’ll need to retire and what they can do now to prepare. I want them to think about the next opportunity to accumulate their wealth better, beyond a savings account.”
Financial literacy can also create economic opportunities that many women are currently missing out on.
For female entrepreneurs, it can be the difference between securing critical funding for ventures and folding their business. In Q2 of 2025, all-female start-ups secured less than 0.5% of capital.
“Why is it the case? It’s not because females don't have bright ideas. It’s because they are on average less financially literate, they don't know how to speak the investor’s language,” Dr Oh explains.
While men tend to present financial models with projected returns and risk scenarios, women often focus on the quality of ideas and potential impact, without sharing the quantitative framework investors expect.
Uncovering this insight led Dr Oh to develop the 2025 Finance for Her event in partnership with UNSW Capital W (Business Female oriented student society) aiming to equip female students with financial literacy as early as possible and close the gender gap at the tertiary level. Representatives from superannuation, investments, taxation, and credit sectors taught students practical skills often missing from traditional curriculum.
"One piece of feedback was that it was a great entry point to understand finance, and it got students really interested to learn more," Dr Oh shares.
Dr Oh’s financial literacy workshops under her Finance for All initiative extends across multiple programs, each targeting specific needs.
In addition to the Finance for Her event for female students, Your First Million: Modelling your Investment workshop supports all UNSW students in Western Sydney regardless of gender, to develop financial literacy, addressing the lower financial capability often seen among younger learners.
Dr Oh also expended these workshop to student studying of the Business School, with “Financial Fitness Masterclass” as a key standout for the School of Optometry and Vision Science.
This masterclass represents a first-of-its-kind offering for Medicine and Health students, providing hands-on guidance in financial literacy, including understanding financial behaviours, creating budgets, and learning the basics of investing.
For the one third of students who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds at UNSW's School of Optometry, finding between $5,000 and $8,000 for equipment required to complete placements is a real barrier to graduating.
"The Head of School conducted a financial wellbeing survey and found this was a recurring problem," Dr Oh explains. "She had to find funding every year for students who were experiencing financial hardship."
Dr Oh’s program teaches students in First Year about financial planning, while giving them three to four years to save for the equipment.
The initiative has been so successful, the School of Optometry is now advocating for financial literacy education across the wider Faculty of Medicine.
"Even medical students who will earn lots of money will have financial issues if they don't know how to manage it," Dr Oh notes.
Dr Oh’s impact extends beyond UNSW. She has delivered financial literacy workshops in Western Sydney—across Canterbury–Bankstown, Parramatta, and Camden—supporting local community groups. Internationally, she has conducted workshops in Cambodia for university, high school, and primary school students, guided by the belief that empowering individuals with financial knowledge is a crucial step toward lifting communities out of poverty.
“I have also conducted workshops in Cambodia for university, high school, and primary school students, based on the belief that lifting an economy out of poverty begins with individuals making informed financial choices.”
Financial literacy isn’t the only way Dr Oh is addressing gender gaps.
Through her work with UNSW’s Co-op Program over the past 10 years, Natalie realised Australia’s gender pay gap starts as early as graduation.
“We consistently see on average more male graduates in the top and females in the medium to low salary bracket,” she shares. “This is not something that's happening after a career break or having children. It's happening from the start of a person’s career."
And while she acknowledges the issue is two-fold – systematic and psychological – she believes teaching students how to prepare for gender inequity can be a game-changer.
“Systematic issues like bias, discrimination and societal expectations are things we need to tackle as a collective. But we can all address psychological barriers, like a lack of confidence or not advocating for ourselves individually. Students should be educated on how to do that,” Dr Oh says.
So, she developed one of Australia's first comprehensive educational courses on gender equity in the workplace.
The four-part Gender Equity Gender Pay Gap module sets out to show students how to navigate gender equity in their career.
It builds students’ understanding of gender inequality and establishes why it’s important part of career planning.
It also challenges students to think critically about why it matters, examining the impact on companies and individuals. Students then learn to distinguish between systematic and psychological barriers – and how to act on the latter.
Those skills include salary negotiation, strategic self-promotion, and advocating for advancement – skills covered in part four through career coaches who provide practical tips and actionable steps.
Dr Oh’s research, passion for education and personal journey have led her to focus on empowering others to create change. She acknowledges not every student will apply what they learn, some may choose different paths. But that's not the point.
"If they choose not to do it, that's fine," she says. "But if we don't educate them, that’s on us."
Dr Oh’s focus on making meaningful progress on gender equity represents UNSW’s commitment to enabling people of all genders to participate equally and preparing students for real-world challenges.
So that when the next generation of graduates embark on their careers, they won’t be held back by their gender – but focus on shaping the future they want instead.