In recent decades lower levels of financial literacy of females relative to males has been well documented. Understanding the gender gap in financial literacy is an important research objective and is central to the development of interventions to narrow the gender gap, improve the economic and financial security of women and support other social and economic outcomes linked to financial literacy. This paper uses a survey of 420 Australian university students to examine the relationship between components of financial literacy and financial socialisation. Financial literacy is measured using responses to the ‘big three’ financial literacy questions and financial socialisation metrics include the responses to questions on self-assessed confidence with managing finances, the source of financial information, the frequency of money conversations and a set of personal characteristics, including gender. Canonical correlation analysis as well as inspection of the descriptive statistics show financial educators and policymakers that more attention needs to focus on teaching concepts of diversification and inflation. It also provides insight into evidence of gender differences in financial confidence, the source of financial information and the frequency of discussions about money matters in the home.