Womenomics

As the French say everything changes, everything remains the same. A recent headline in the Sunday Star Times caught my eye “DIVORCE LAW: MOTHER’S DON’T GET A FAIR DEAL.” Law Professor Mark Henaghan says that stay at home mothers left with little earning power when their marriages break up are not getting a fair deal from the courts.

As one English judge famously put it: “The cock bird can feather his nest precisely because he does not have to spend all his time sitting on it.”

Henaghan explains; “If one party goes on earning $500,000 a year and the other is on a benefit then even if you’ve got 50% of the property you’re still quite a long way behind the eight ball, in terms of economic equality.

After divorce women come off second best financially. A woman’s income drops 24% on average; a man’s drops 6%.

This is simply one of the the areas where women’s economic power is repressed. For more on this read Girls Just Want to Have Fund$.

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Womenomics

I have been wondering who or what will bring Mugabe down. An article towards the end of last year made me wonder if it would be women.

The rare demonstration of resistance was fuelled by some 200 women hoisting placards and demanding an end to the cholera epidemic. The women only marched a couple of hundred yards before dispersing, foiling the security services who only found flyers blowing along the Harare footpath.

The contrast between the concerns of the Zimbabwean women and in the Western world is phenomenal. In Australia, concern is growing at the systemic problems which inhibit the appointment of women to senior management roles despite women graduating in greater numbers. The lack of promotion is tied to the time women take out of the workforce colliding with the lack of flexibility demonstrated by businesses. Here in New Zealand the Human Rights Commission says that the evidence of gender equality is now indisputable (for more on both of these issues read Girls Just Want to Have Fund$).

If women continue to defy Mugabe, will they take power, economic power, in a way that we have not been able to?

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Womenomics

The world of womenomics can be quite confusing. Two reports one from the UK and one from the USA caught my eye.

In Britain it appears that the average earnings of black women are now 6% higher than that of their white counterparts. This is a reversal of last years figures when white women earned more than 7% more. The Equality and Human Rights Commission said that one explanation for these results was that 50% of black women live in central London where the average pay is higher and many black women work in health and social services where pay has been rising.

This report I juxtaposed with an article in the New York Times under the banner "What has Driven Women Out of Computer Science?" It seems that less than 10% of the recent computer science graduates are women compared with the mid 1980's when women made up 40% of the students who majored in computer systems. One professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of Wisconsin theorised that it has been the rise in the subculture of action gaming which is the cause. There was the sense that computers were "boys" toys and that true girls didn't play with computers. There is also of course the pejorative term of "nerd" or "geek."

I was recently taken to task for talking about the "ghettoisation" of some occupations; these two reports reminded me of that. Health and social services are "womanly" occupations and computer science is not.

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Musings and Amusings

A famous 19th Century German doctor put it this way “Women is a pair of ovaries with a human being attached, whereas man is a human being furnished with a pair of testes”.

Homer Simpson, that well known philosopher, told Bart that women are like beer, and he’s mighty fond of both!

Somewhere between these two statements lies the reality. Something both sexes are constantly trying to evaluate, perhaps we should concentrate on our strengths rather than our perceived weaknesses.

The only irrefutable fact is that men and women are entirely different – as the French say “Vive le difference”.

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Why?

Why in 2008 are we still seeing practices which restrict and marginalise women?

In Kuala Lumpur the main body of Islamic clerics has issued an edict banning tomboys, ruling that girls who act like boys violate tenets of Islam.

While in the port at Kismayo, thousands of people gathered to witness 50 Somali men stone a women to death. She was buried in the ground up to her neck and her head was battered with rocks. The local Islamist leader claimed she wanted Sharia law and the punishment to apply following her act of adultery.

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Womenomics

There is no doubt that the world economies look bad. Andrea Learned, a specialist in marketing to women, suggests that the only way to dig ourselves out of the crisis is to model businesses and organisations on typical feminine behaviour. “Women’s way” includes building and leveraging community, being socially responsible, and operating from an “it all matters” perspective. She says that reaching out to women is how brands should be preparing for these questionable times when redesigning organisational policies, products, processes and marketing. To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson “Women are the best index of the coming hour” and who could disagree?

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WOMENOMICS

It’s pretty clear that Hollywood pays its male leads more and gives them roles for much longer than women.

This has extended to the world of comics. Five of the six upcoming Marvel movies feature male leads with women firmly relegated to the roles of girlfriends or assistants. Why not a Wonder Woman flick or any true super heroine movie? It’s not because directors and writers lack good material, there are literally hundreds of comic book super heroines, and female characters play integral roles in just about every superhero team and major comic book plots.

We recently saw women flexing their box office muscle giving Sex and the City the highest-grossing opening for an R-rated comedy in movie history; it’s not inconceivable to think that a super heroine flick could draw both the “girls night out” crowd and the already broad fan base for comic movies. That would give the studios a revenue bump of the kind provided by the Spiderman and X-MEN franchises. Don’t the movie moguls want our money? We are an economic force to be reckoned with.

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Womenomics

A few weeks ago and academic Paul Callister questioned the validity and continuation of specific scholarships for women, given, as we all know that women routinely gain higher educational qualifications than men. An op-ed piece in the Sunday Star Times commented that Mr Callister raised “fair” but “awkward” questions.

At arond the same time Fairfax printed a booklet listing the 100 Business Luminaries who have shaped our nation. Of the 100 business peoples, four were women, yes you read that right – four.

Women’s scholarships should continue until we are further down the track towards economic parity – bearing in mind that the right to education for women is still in its infancy in comparison to that of men. Possibly the reason behind our enthusiasm for learning we don’t accept it as a right.

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Womenomics

A recent article in the Economist asks is the European Union at heart a female project? Margot Wallstrom, a vice-president and thus the most senior woman in the European Commission, rather thinks so. She points to the EU's fondness for compromise and listening, and its rejection of horrid things like conflict. Ms Wallstrom, who is charged with selling the EU project to the public, suggests that this is a good reason for giving women a bigger share of the union's top jobs.

The underlying problem is that “men choose men” for important jobs (and isn’t that true in all walks of life), and this harms the EU, maintains Ms Wallstrom. Men and women “complement” each other. For example, male leaders traditionally define security in terms of “military investments”. Female leaders focus more on security achieved through access to clean water and education or “keeping children and women safe”. This is not just a woman's way of looking at security, she contends; it is the European way.

Beyond the usual feminist propaganda, Ms Wallstrom is right on one serious point: that it is (at least on the face of it) outrageous that no woman is in the running for any of Europe's leading jobs. It is a sad waste of talent whenever mediocre men fill seats that could go to more capable women.

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Why?

Why aren’t there more women in science and engineering?

When it comes to the huge and persistent gender gap in science and technology jobs, the finger of blame has pointed in many directions: sexist companies, boy-friendly science and math classes, differences in aptitude.

Women make up almost half of today's workforce, yet hold just a fraction of the jobs in certain high-earning, high-qualification fields. They constitute 20 percent of the nation's engineers, fewer than one-third of chemists, and only about a quarter of computer and math professionals.

Now two new studies by economists and social scientists have reached a perhaps startling conclusion: When it comes to certain math- and science-related jobs, substantial numbers of women - highly qualified for the work - stay out of those careers because they would simply rather do something else.

One test, a standard personality-inventory test measured people's preferences for different kinds of work. Personal preference it concluded was the single largest determinative factor in whether women went into IT. They calculated that preference accounted for about two-thirds of the gender imbalance in the field.

A second study found something else intriguing: Women who are mathematically gifted are more likely than men to have strong verbal abilities as well; men who excel in math, by contrast, don't do nearly as well in verbal skills. As a result, the career choices for math-precocious women are wider than for their male counterparts. They can become scientists, but can succeed just as well as lawyers or teachers. With this range of choice, their data show, highly qualified women may opt out of certain technical or scientific jobs simply because they can.

Despite these studies women still seem to make choices throughout their lives that are different from men's, and it is not yet clear why. For example we don’t know about the role of mentors or experience or socialisation.

These findings on self-selection only open new areas of inquiry. The end result may be surprising - and an equal-opportunity workforce may look a lot less equal than some had imagined.

I would be very interested in your views on this.

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Everyday Money

Well I love market research especially that which tell me what I am doing with my every day money – and in comparison with Australian women. You’ll be surprised to know that we spend more than the Aussies, proportionate to our income. But at least we get it right – we spend more on premium products and indulgences such as shoes, designer clothing, haircuts and pamper sessions. What do you spend your money on?

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Womenomics

The Human Rights Commission has just released a "Census of Women's Participation." The findings of that report clearly delineates inequality across sectors such as the police, legal and justice systems and at company director level:

• 41.6% of lawyers are women but only 19.34% are partners in law firms.
• 3 of the top 50 police officers are women.
• 54 women sit on boards of publicly listed companies, 8.65% of board membership.
• 23% of public service CEO's are female but women are 59% of state sector employees.

It is now more than 30 years since sex discrimination legislation came into force but our progress towards gender equality seems minimal.

It amazes me given that we mouth the mantra of social responsibility, and the value of diversity, that women are so excluded from the top jobs.

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Musings & Amusings

My worry treatment of choice is a well mixed Martini and thanks to a book called How's your Drink? I now know the required dosage; there is apparently a link between breasts (female) and Martinis. One is too few. Three is too many. Two seems somehow superbly right.

Please comment on your treatment of choice!

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Why?

I am enthused that the last two decades have seen a major shift in education throughout the West. Employers cry out for more highly educated workers and boys have made modest gains in participation and performance but they have been outdone by the explosive improvement of girls at every level.

There are plenty of theories which claim the rationale but the jury is still out.

Why does this matter?
- It is actually a world wide trend, some US universities are introducing positive discrimination to life male attendance. Should NZ?
- Educated women marry later and have fewer children, what impact will this have on family formation?
- We have, in the past, "married up"; as we outperform men will there be a decline in partnering?
- What will happen to ethnic intermarriage rates given that well educated Maori and Pacific women are far more likely to have a partner outside their ethnic group - does this matter?

I look forward to your comments.

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Womenomics

I frequently start off my presentations by saying "I don’t know any women who aren’t fabulous with money; budgeting with it, spending it, getting it from other people, saving it (in the bank), buying cheaply, securing cash for clothes or jewellery, helping others make money, or giving it away, or, like Greenacres Zsa Zsa Gabor being a good housekeeper – she kept all her houses."

And now this has been validated by a survey commissioned by home lender Wizard. Sixty per cent of women have sole responsibility for budgeting and nearly 70% pay the bills. Less than one in ten couples share these tasks and well over half the women take the lead in paying the rent or mortgage. In fact, barely 1 in 10 women said their male partners had sole responsibilities for household tasks.


But what interested me was that the top of the priority list; a good level of savings was of prime financial importance for a massive 79% of those surveyed and having a good amount of retirement savings was important to 52% and having investments an important goal for four out of ten women.

I am absolutely convinced that we will see a massive change in the investment world over the next decade and it will be driven by women. I am amazed that financial institutions have not yet figured this out - but then it is mostly men who are in charge!

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Womenomics

I have long held the view that women are essential to our economy, and to the global economy. It appalls and amazes me that this is not recognised. Two dissapointing stories in the media recently:

Here in NZ the mercislessley efficient drive to reduce the cost of birth - our children are our future economic prosperity and will support our aging population. Women (mothers) are also of value in two ways; firstly we train and educate the next generation of producers and in our homes generally do the work of several professionals - chauffeur, educators, cook, cleaner, child care expert - the list goes on.

Read more in Marilyn Warings "Counting for Nothing."

In the Congo where the recent wars have killed more people than any war since World War II. Members of renegade units are gang raping thousands of women, and making sex slaves of others, branding, maiming and mutilating victims. A United Nations peacekeeping force deployed in Eastern Congo was supposed to have protected the regions civilians; the failure of the force to protect women has been in part because of a veil of silence that surrounds what is occurring. Women have no say in the decision making that drives the conflict and have no access to political and economic power in a society that considers them of scant value.

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Why can we make disastrous decisions in love?

This is your brain on love - more neuroscience!

Her front brain is telling her he's trouble. Look at the facts, it says. He's never made a commitment, he drinks too much, he can't hold down a job.

But her middle brain won't listen. Man, it swoons, he looks great in those jeans, his black hair curls onto his forehead so adorably, and when he drags on a cigarette, he's so bad he's good.

His front brain is lecturing, too: She's flirting with every guy in the place, and she can drink even you under the table, it says. His mid-brain is unresponsive, distracted by her legs, her blouse and her come-hither stare.

Alas, when it comes to choosing mates, smart neurons can make dumb choices. Sure, if the brain's owner is in her 40s and has been around the block a few times, she might grab her bag and scram. If the guy has reached seasoned middle age, he might think twice about that cleavage-baring temptress. Wisdom - at least a little - does come with experience.

But if the objects of desire are in their 20s, all bets are off.

It's a dance that holds many mysteries, to psychologists as well as to the willing participants. Science is just beginning to parse the inner workings of the brain in love, examining the blissful or ruinous fall from a medley of perspectives: neural systems, chemical messengers and the biology of reward.

It was only in 2000 that two London scientists selected 70 people, all in the early sizzle of love, and rolled them into the giant cylinder of a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner, or FMRI. The images they got are thought to be science's first pictures of the brain in love.

The pictures were a revelation, and others have followed, showing that romantic love is a lot like addiction to alcohol or drugs. The brain is playing a trick, necessary for evolution, by associating something that just happened with pleasure and attributing the feeling to that magnificent specimen right before your eyes.

Somehow, it all comes together, for better or for worse, the sum total of what's found in the mating dance of the ancient reptilian brain, the passion of the limbic brain and the logic of the neocortex; and, if you want to know how this translates into your money behaviour read 'Money, Money, Money Ain't it Funny.'

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Womenomics

A recent McKinsey survey asked men and women executives to define the event that has had the most significant impact on their careers. Both men & women report that work factors have more influence than those from home. Women were more likely to say they had role models and mentors.

The top three career changing moments were:

• Realisation you were not leading the life you wanted.
• Difficulties balancing work and private life.
• Change in marital status.
• Women ranked the first in two more highly than change in marital status which rather surprised me.

Another notable difference was that 27% of the women surveyed but just 7% of men say they have experienced discrimination and are also somewhat more likely than men to say they have difficulty balancing work and private life.

Overall, when both sexes were asked who, inside or outside the workplace provided substantial help they offer very similar answers.

The top three were; spouse, friends then colleagues or friends at work.

It’s good to see similarities between the male and female experiences in the workplace – with, of course, the exception of discrimination!

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Womenomics

“In a society where the rights and potential of women are constrained, no man can be truly free. He may have power, but he will not have freedom”

Mary Robinson, Ireland’s first woman president.

There has been a slew of reports and commentaries of working women; why the women in the workplace figures are different, women as working parents (Why do men as working parents never get a mention?) and the glass ceiling.

It appears that unemployment is down by 2000, but 12,000 full time jobs held by women have vanished-the assumption is that these positions have morphed into part time positions. The new Women’s affairs minister Steve Chadwick, claims that women will really only get equality when we have really “good childcare arrangements”

What a load of rubbish. The only way we will achieve “equality” is through equal sharing of power. Economic power comes from full acceptance in the workplace; that means a change in culture. The changes may be overt- no longer rewarding aggressive workplace behaviour or covert, utilising feminine or generic powers. We need to see more women on boards in government, both national and local. And lastly we need to promote ourselves and our work; we are far too willing to stay in the background.

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Womenomics

I have just read a disturbing and poorly researched article by Sarah Catherall published in the Dominion and here in the Press on the 2^nd of October. There is no denying the statistics she quotes, but as always the figures are historical and as usual can make a case depending on how they are framed (For more on framing read Money, Money, Money..Aint it funny)

The article would have had better balance if she had examined the trends relating to women and investment, or women and purchasing power. Like many other women I am tired of the slew of reports which paint me as brainless and financially illiterate. We are the decision makers for over 80% of consumer purchases. Some examples are: New homes 91%, Holidays 92%, Cars (Yes!) 60%, and, what about the realms of finances, say insurances and money? Women select new bank accounts nearly 90% of the time.

In the States two thirds of working women and over 50% of working wives earn more than half of the families income, write 80% of the cheques, pay 61% of all bills and own 53% of all shares. As at the start of 2000, six out of every ten new web users were women and of those women 83% were primary decision makers in the matters of finance, healthcare and education. It seems unlikely to me that New Zealand women are any different!

Again in the States (finding figures here is well near impossible) women owned businesses accounted for about 3.5 trillion in revenue- the equivalent of the German GDP. In fact one prediction from no less a journal from Private Banker International claims that by 2010- only three years away, half of all wealth is expected to be in the hands of women.

We have of course always worked, but not always been financially rewarded. It appears however that future economic prosperity is increasingly in our hands. A recent article in the Economist suggests that women’s paid work has not only added more to world wide GDP than that of men, but has also enhanced capital investment-Women’s employment over the last decade has added more to global growth than China.

And it is not just our economic clout- our investment skills are better than those of men. Robust studies such as Boys will be Boys (Boys will be boys:Gender, Overconfidence and Common Stock Investment. Brad M. Barber and Terrance Odean) confirm that male overconfidence and churning of portfolios significantly reduces their investment returns. . Financial planners have a distorted perception of women investors and tend to assume that women are risk averse and subsequently advise on that basis . There is some basis to the view that women are risk averse but we tend to think that 80% of women are where as it is more like 20%. Companies are waking up to the fact that women have money to invest- Citigroup, AXA, Wells Fargo,Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab, Prudential, Wachovia, when will this happen here? As Tom Peters says in Re-imagine! “Id love to be the CEO of a financial services company for 60 months and redirect its strategy by 179.5 degrees..... In the direction of developing products for, marketing to, and distributing them to women... and then there is the composition of the board..........”

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