Many empirical studies across a large number of countries consistently show that women know less about money matters and financial concepts than men (Lusardi & Mitchell, 2014). Hence, they are very often identified to be a financially “vulnerable” group that needs more attention in financial education than men. This paper empirically explores if this holds true for Austrian men and women. The analysis is based on a comprehensive survey among 2,000 respondents on financial knowledge, attitudes, behavior and decision making. The results reveal that in fact, Austrian men outperform women in terms of knowledge which is in line with the findings in other countries. The effect can also be identified if we account for different socio-demographic characteristics and different answer behaviour or if we focus on those subgroups in which we would assume gender gaps to be smallest. However, we do not find such differences when it comes to money attitudes and behaviours in financially relevant situations. Women seem to be more cautious and prudent and less prone to spending money instead of saving it. They also have slightly more favorable results when it comes to planning ahead and setting long term financial goals. A regression analysis reveals that while knowledge, attitudes and behaviours are relevant for explaining financial well-being, gender clearly is not. In order to learn more about the so called gender gap it seems desirable and important to replicate this regression analysis based on the data of other studies on financial literacy.

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