The Gender Wealth Gap in Québec

Private wealth is becoming increasingly important in planning for retirement and protecting against life risks; however, limited research has addressed the gender wealth gap in Canada. This gap remains largely unexplored because of the collection of wealth data at the household level in existing surveys within the country, which obscures disparities within couples. To overcome this limitation, this article uses new personal wealth data from an original survey conducted in 2022 in the province of Québec (N: 4816). The analyses were performed using quantile regression and decomposition at the 70th, 80th, and 90th quantiles. The results reveal significant wealth inequalities favoring men that appear even more pronounced among partnered adults than those who are unpartnered. The gender wealth gap is partly explained by differences in income and ownership of real estate other than the principal residence between men and women. However, a substantial portion of this gap remains unexplained. These findings highlight the need to collect wealth data at both household and individual levels in Canada to better understand gender-based economic disparities. They also call for more research on the processes underpinning the gender wealth gap by suggesting that it does not simply reflect the wage gap between men and women.