Why?

Why are men and women different – the perennial question!”Recently, the psychologist David Buss's team at the University of Texas at Austin reported that men, when looking for one-night stands, check out women's bodies. Surprise!Like many results in evolutionary psychology, this may seem blindingly obvious, but that does not stop it from being controversial. Earlier this month a neuroscientist in Britain, Gina Rippon, lambasted what she called the "neurohype" about sex differences: "There may be some very small differences between the genders,...

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Womenomics

Human Rights Commission Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Judy McGregor says baby boomer women need to step aside to let younger women move up the ranks in both the public and private sectors.A recent letter to the editor asked if Judy McGregor was joking “Is she planning to step aside herself? Why should any woman give up her job for another? What is gained?How many men are planning to step aside so that younger people, men and women, can take their places? If she is serious, Ms McGregor has undoubtedly disqualified herself for the position...

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Everyday Money

They say money can’t buy happiness. They’re wrong. At least up to a point. People’s emotional wellbeing increases along with their income up to about US$75,000 (NZ$103,700), researchers report in today’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For people making less than that, “Stuff is so in your face, it’s hard to be happy. It interferes with your enjoyment,” said Angus Deaton, an economist at Princeton University.Not surprisingly, someone who moves from a US$100,000 a-year job to one paying US$200,000 realises an improved...

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Finance and Investments

It’s long been known that women make better investors than men, although frankly that’s not a particularly difficult thing to do as most males have the patience of a small child with a full bladder and a tendency to hair-trigger trading for all sorts of behaviourally induced reasons. However, what’s a bit more surprising is that this difference is seen in professional investment circles as well while at the same time biases against female fund managers ensure they have less money to manage more wisely.Female investment managers are more risk-adverse...

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Who's Counting?

Women are poised to claim a majority of seats in Switzerland’s Cabinet, less than four decades after the country became one of Europe’s last to grant women the right to vote in national elections. A four-three split in favour of women today – and outcome favoured in opinion polls – would make Switzerland only the fifth country in the world to have a female majority in government, according to the Inter-Parliamentary uni...

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Musings and Amusings

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We are delighted to welcome you aboard Veritas Airways, the airline that tells it like it is. Please ensure you seat belt is fastened, your seat-belt is upright and your table is stowed, as your safety is our first priority. Actually, that isn’t quite true. If it were, our seats would be rear-facing, like those in military aircraft, as they are safer in an emergency landing. But then nobody would buy tickets and we would go bust.The flight attendants are now indicating the emergency exits. This is where you...

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Musings and Amusings

Is this too good to be true?Men Having it all in SwedenMikael Karlsson owns a snowmobile, two hunting dogs and five guns. In his spare time, this soldier-turned-game warden shoots moose and trades potty-training tips with other fathers. Cradling 2-month-old Siri in his arms, he can't imagine not taking baby leave. ''Everyone does.'' 85 percent of Swedish fathers take parental leave. Those who don't face questions from family, friends and colleagues....

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Womenomics

Women claimed three of the top five spots in Forbes magazine’s 2010 Celebrity power list, with singer Lady Gaga making her first entry and Oprah Winfrey retaking her No 1 position. Talk show host Winfrey earned an estimated US$315 million (NZ$445m), putting her stop the annual Forbes’ Celebrity 100 list for the fourth time.Grammy-winning R & B singer Beyonce rose to second with an estimated US$87 million from a tour and album sales, together...

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Why?

From the New York Times by Maureen Dowd.I had tea and sweets with a group of educated and sophisticated young professional women.I asked why they were not more upset about living in a country where women’s rights were strangled, an inbred and autocratic state more like an archaic men’s club than a modern nation. They told me, somewhat defensively, that the kingdom was moving at its own pace, glacial as that seemed to outsiders.How could such spirited...

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Finance and Investment

From one of my favourites; the Psy-Fi Blog: Geography Is WealthSummarising briefly, the peoples of the European-Asian land mass were favoured because the East-West directionality of the continents meant that people and animals could spread without encountering hugely unfavourable climate conditions. In Africa, for example, spreading North-South meant overcoming widely different temperature conditions, a malarial zone and the Sahara Desert.Europe...

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Who’s counting?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning once wrote How do I love thee? Let me count the ways?One assumes she would write a simple numbered list. Easy to read and understand mathematically.Sometimes however we are presented with statistics which on the face of it look impeccable but which are wrong.A recent example caught my eye – abortions for girls have doubled since 1991! The headlines shrieked, the moralists pontificated. But allow for population growth of...

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Everyday Money

If anything underlines the need most New Zealander's have to take financial advice, a new survey has found that 60% of Kiwis are financially stressed - but most don't plan to change the way they spend or invest.The survey, undertaken by the Financial Services Institute of Australasia (Finsia), found that 60% of women and 55% of men say the global financial crisis has made them feel financially stressed."The sudden collapse of finance companies, the...

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Womenomics

Few young women enter the trades where there are good career opportunities and it is possible to earn-while-you-learn.Many jobs remain dominated by either men or women. While 99 percent of all plumbers, builders, and mechanics are men, over 90 percent of people working as caregivers, registered nurses, and secretaries are women. Male-dominated jobs tend to be higher paid than female-dominated jobs.MWA commissioned research in 2008 on the factors...

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Why?

Why am I reading yet another article telling me it is good business to have women in senior positions as well as fair! I have to say it exasperates me when I look at the management of the companies I work with – they are all men. The argument I get when I query this is the old “we cannot find women for senior positions” has worn thin.Half of The National Australia Bank leadership are women; they have a programme of hiring 200 bankers this year, setting...

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Finance and Investments

My favourite emerging market fund is managed by Dr Mark Mobius. He recently visited New Zealand. Some highlights from this presentation;The Emerging Markets fund has performed exceptionally well. It has appreciated 18 fold since listing, which equates to an annual return over the past 21 years of around 15 per cent. Over the past decade it has gained 12 per cent a year in NZ dollars, trouncing both the emerging markets index which is up 6.5 per cent...

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Musings and Amusings

It amazes me that so many Kiwis are reluctant to write financial plans – only around 30% of us do so. Perhaps my profession needs to take a more creative approach. Consider the following as a base for your plan:Write a mission statement for your life. What are you dedicated to? What can people count on from you? Leave this exercise for a day or two, then re-read it. Did you learn something about your goals and dreams? Can you incorporate what you...

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Everyday Money

A recent survey undertaken by the Financial Services Institute of Australasian found that 60% of women and 55% of men say that the global crisis has made them feel financially stressed. The obvious response to this is simple; have a financial plan, accept that the best laid plans “gang aft agley” to quote the bard Robbie Burns. This means that once you and your financial planner have created a plan it needs to be revisited. Just as sometimes we have...

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Who's Counting?

Susan Pinker is counting. Women are 2.8 times more likely than men to leave science and engineering careers for other occupations and 13 times more likely to exit the labour force entirely. Pinker makes it a point to show how males are genetically at a disadvantage; prone to disease, accidents, ADHD, autism, Asperger’s, dyslexia, and others. Many males experience an overlap, getting hit with two or three of these disorders throughout their development....

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Who's Counting

According to a recent blog on fortune.com, Sharon Meers is.Meers co-wrote a book called Getting to 50/50. Lots of fascinating stats, but some of the most intriguing revolved around the male-female balance of work at home. Meers mentioned that when couples share housework, the risk of divorce drops.Divorce risk drops sharply when the wife has a job. The ideal set-up is when the man earns 60% of the income and does 40% of the housework. That’s when...

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Everyday Money

If you haven’t yet managed to save for your retirement you could be facing an uphill battle when it comes to your financial future. Many of us don’t feel able to save for retirement until we have our kids off our hands and our mortgages either paid off or at a manageable level. Don’t ever think it is too late to start, there are still ways you can achieve a comfortable retirement.No matter how little working time you have left you should be investing....

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Finance and Investments

Most of us have heard the saying ‘it’s time in the market, not timing the market that’s important’. During the turbulent times of 2008 and early 2009, however, it was difficult to believe.When the global share markets (as measured by the Morgan Stanley Capital Index) fell by 54% from the peak in 2007 to their nadir this year, everything looked, sounded and felt extremely gloomy. We didn’t know which overseas bank was going to fail next and unprecedented...

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Womenomics

Some excerpts from a Women on Boards Report:BETTER COMPANY PERFORMANCEInternational research shows a positive correlation between women in leadership and business performance.The Catalyst report (The Bottom Line: Corporate performance and women’s representation on boards, 2007) found that in all measures the companies with the most women board members outperformed those with the least.CRITICAL MASSWhile women can add value to boards individually,...

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Why?

Why is there still a gender gap when it comes to earnings? We are no longer expected to be nurses, teachers and social workers but are now accountants, doctors, lawyers – and financial planners. We now hold close to 50% of the available jobs, but according to a report from the States, during the last recession 78% of the jobs lost were held by men. Why? Because women are cheap; we earn around 77-80 cents to every dollar earned by men. Women returning...

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Musings and Amusings

I have often amused myself by musing upon the GFC (Great Financial Crisis). Musing on how events would have unfolded if there was less testosterone driving our financial markets. I am not particularly original, many pundits have elaborated on this theme.An article on the money making activities in Sicily caught my eye. It appears that the Mafia charges a 10% levy on all businesses. Not surprisingly a group called Addiopizzo (goodbye pizzo – a reference...

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