(NYTIMES) - When even they are very successful in their careers, millennial women tend to defer to their husbands when it comes to money matters.

A recent study by Swiss banking group UBS found that even the most educated and high-achieving millennial women were not as involved as their husbands in long-term financial decision-making.

In fact, millennial women - part of a generation thought to have pushed for open-mindedness about gender roles - exhibited less financial independence than boomer women did.

Among millennial women living with male partners, 54 per cent said they deferred to the men for long-term financial planning rather than sharing that responsibility or taking the lead themselves, compared with 39 per cent of boomer women, according to the study, which surveyed 1,320 women with at least US$250,000 (S$337,000) in investable assets.

The primary reason those women deferred was a belief that their husbands knew more, the study found. There have been worrying signs of a lack of progress towards gender equality at all income levels.

Another study by consulting firm McKinsey found that a third of mothers had considered leaving the workforce or downshifting their careers during the pandemic, with a majority of those citing childcare challenges as a primary reason.

The UBS study also found that fewer millennial women than boomer women saw financial participation as necessary for equality, with 76 per cent of millennials (aged 24 to 39) saying it was essential, compared with 89 per cent of boomers (aged 56 to 74).

Ms Erin Lowry, a personal finance adviser and author of Broke Millennial, said: "I know a lot of millennial women who are feminists, liberated and whatever, who let their husbands handle all the finances. It's very much still an archetype in heterosexual relationships."