Marion Leturcq et Carole Bonnet

Wealth inequalities by gender: an issue we know relatively little about

(Interview conducted in January 2025)

Few studies have been done on wealth inequalities between men and women, despite the fact that they are implicated in and impact individuals’ conjugal (couple) and occupational trajectories. INED researchers Marion Leturcq and Carole Bonnet explain why it is so important to study gender-related wealth gaps in greater depth. 

What is wealth?

Wealth is all the assets a person possesses: real estate, financial assets (stocks, bonds, etc.), and, potentially, material goods related to an occupational activity. All these different components are added together to measure not only the wealth of an individual or household but also inequalities between individuals as indicated by the results. Measuring wealth gives a relatively long-term view of economic disparities between individuals, in direct contrast to earned income, which corresponds to money flows received over a given period.

Wealth plays a fundamental role in our life trajectories. It can be used to cope with unexpected expenses, to organize one’s cushion one’s retirement, and to transmit an inheritance. Wealth inequalities are greater and more persistent than income inequalities. Several studies, particularly a recent one by Garbinti, Goupille-Lebret and Piketty (see bibliography below), have shown how wealth inequalities become more substantial over time, thereby concentrating wealth within a relatively small proportion of the population. Understanding wealth gaps is therefore essential to apprehending the economic and social dynamics of our societies, thinking about how to achieve social justice, and designing public policies. 

What has your research shown about gender-related wealth inequalities within couples?

First, it’s important to note that those inequalities are not studied very often. Most research has concentrated on disparities in income or living standards, leaving aside the central economic dimension of wealth. Using individualized data on wealth in France, our research shows that wealth gaps between men and women are significant and may be explained in part by differences between their conjugal and occupational trajectories. 

Our research, situated at the interface between economics and demography, allows for exploring the links between conjugal or couple trajectories, types of marriage contracts or agreements, and wealth accumulation. For example, our work on gender wealth inequalities in France show that while couples with a marriage contract specifying that the assets that each partner brings to the marriage remain separate are found to accumulate more wealth, on average, than spouses who pool or combine their respective assets, wealth accumulated under that type of marriage contract widens the gap between spouses—to the detriment of women. It also brings to light close ties between level of accumulated wealth and conjugal trajectories. Long-lasting couple relationships usually result in greater wealth than for individuals with discontinuous couple trajectories. Specifically, divorce and separation are associated with lower wealth for women. Men’s wealth, on the other hand, is generally not so closely tied to their marital history. The lasting impacts of life events such as divorce and separation show how important it is to take individual wealth levels into account if we want to fully understand gender inequalities and how they develop. 

In fact, part of the wealth gap is constructed during a couple’s life together, namely in connection with wealth distribution between spouses. Another part of the gap is due to how the couple’s wealth is distributed between the soon-to-be ex-partners upon union dissolution. That process influenced by a host of factors, including initial asset distribution, type of union to be dissolved, and type of marriage contract, all of which play an important role. And as Bessière and Gollac have shown, it is also important to consider actions taken by legal professionals, as they too can increase the probability of unequal wealth sharing.

As couple-related behaviors diversify—greater numbers of cohabiting unions, separations, remarriages—our research will be of use in advancing understanding of the mechanisms that drive economic equalities.

What further research avenues in economic demography can be explored around this issue?

To further substantiate the above-cited analyses we need to explore several avenues. It is crucial for gender wealth gap research to continue to account for changes in family structure; also to quantify the role of such events as divorce and spouse’s death. Moreover, we need to think about how to improve available statistical information, as more detailed data is needed for this research, particularly data on wealth transfers at union dissolution. In this connection, collaboration between researchers and notaires [public legal specialists in France who must, by law, be consulted in matters of asset distribution as they pertain to spouses and families and who certify the legality of those distributions] could be a way forward.

Wealth inequalities as they relate to changing family structures is now one of the major research avenues of our “Economic Demography” research unit

References: 

Céline Bessière et, Sibylle Gollac,2022, Le genre du capital: comment la famille reproduit les inégalités. La Découverte

Carole Bonnet, Enrica Maria Martino, Benoît Rapoport et al., 2022, "Wealth inequalities among seniors: the role of marital histories across cohorts", Review of Economics of the Household 21: 815–853

Carole Bonnet, Alice Keogh et Benoît Rapoport, 2014, "Quels facteurs pour expliquer les écarts de patrimoine entre hommes et femmes en France ?", Économie et Statistique: 101-123

Nicolas Frémeaux et Marion Leturcq, 2022, "Wealth Accumulation and the Gender Wealth Gap Across Couples’ Legal Statuses and Matrimonial Property Regimes in France", European Journal of Population 38: 643–679

Nicolas Frémeaux et Marion Leturcq, 2020, "Inequalities and the individualization of wealth", Journal of Public Economics 184: 1-18

Bertrand Garbinti, Jonathan Goupille-Lebret, et Thomas Piketty, 2021, "Accounting for wealth-inequality dynamics: Methods, estimates, and simulations for France", Journal of the European Economic Association, 19(1), 620-663