Womenomics

There have been many articles and even some discussion at the Economic Summit in Davos, over whether the financial meltdown would have been so severe, or would have occurred, if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters. It’s certainly pretty clear that business culture is overwhelmingly male and fuelled by testosterone.

In Iceland, officially a bankrupt country, women are cleaning up the mess. Iceland with a population of just over 300,000, has had the Krona collapse, interest rates and inflation have soared, companies and households which have borrowed in foreign currency are overwhelmed by debt, and unemployment is at record levels, reports the Guardian. Over the last decade Iceland had adopted a new economic order reinventing itself as an Atlantic Tiger, enthusiastically adopting free market reforms and financial engineering. The crisis led to the government’s downfall, the new government is led by an elegant 66 year old lesbian Johanna Sigurdardottir.

And it is women now who are heading up banks and companies. Prominent among the forty-something women is the singer Bjork who, with two other women, has set up an investment fund to boost the economy by investing in green technology. They state they have five core feminine values:
1. Risk awareness, they don’t invest in things they don’t understand.
2. Profit with principles, that is not just economic profit, but a positive social and environmental impact.
3. Emotional capital, they do an emotional due diligence.
4. Straight talking, the language of finance should be accessible not jargon infested.
5. Independence, they want to see women become financially independent which gives women the greatest freedom to be who they are.

Exactly the values we adhere to at Women’s Financial Strategies.