The
financial battle of the sexes
Women are earning - and spending - more than
ever before. But they also have greater demands
on their cash and as the divorce rate rises and
they cannot or choose not to depend on their
husbands, women are having to take greater
responsibility for their finances. A poll by
Alliance & Leicester shows that more than a
third of women think they hold the purse
strings. But the men see it differently - only
one in five said their wife or girlfriend was in
charge of household finances. For 44% of
couples, money matters are a shared
responsibility. When it comes to managing money,
is it you or your partner that wears the
financial trousers?
Historically, men have better numeracy skills
than women and with the exception of
savings accounts, men currently own more
financial products than women. Research from
finance watchdog the Financial Services
Authority (FSA) shows that men and women hold
different attitudes to financial products with
women being more cautious, more careful and more
traditional than men.
Women are also more likely to remain loyal
and stay with a financial provider with whom
they have an existing relationship. They prefer
to buy financial products face to face, feeling
happy to take the recommendation of a financial
adviser, whereas men are better at shopping
around. But regardless of age and status
(employment, ethnic origin, marital status)
women are much less likely than men to read the
financial pages of the newspapers. Overall more
than one in three men regularly read the
financial pages compared to only one in five
women.
Interestingly, many women interviewed by the
Fawcett Society - which campaigns for women -
initially claimed that financial decision-making
was shared with their partner. However, when
questioned further they frequently referred to
instances where they had not been able to
challenge a partner's spending decisions. They
also felt inhibited about spending money on
themselves because they earned less than their
partner. 'Bringing money into the household
brings with it a sense of entitlement to decide
how it is spent,' explains Geethika Jayatilaka
of the Fawcett Society. 'Because men earn more
than women they have greater control of how
money is spent or shared, and more access to
personal spending".
The Fawcett report found that a quarter of
women with personal incomes of under £400 a
month say that it is their partner who has the
final say in financial decisions. Women place a
higher priority on saving than men but with
little input into financial decisions resort to
secret saving to redress the balance. A typical
comment from a secret saver was: 'It sounds
terrible, but I'm not hiding it from him. I just
haven't told him it's there otherwise he would
say let's go on holiday or something and then it
would be gone'. Homegirls
Today's women want to manage their own money
and
mortgages/a>, even if they live with their
other half, according to research from Standard
Life Bank. More than half of women with their
own mortgage would keep it and their property
for as long as possible even if they met a
partner and decided to settle down. With nearly
one in five working women in the UK now having a
mortgage on their own, home ownership is no
longer men's domain.
Women are also more likely to get to grips
with
remortgaging says The MarketPlace at
Bradford & Bingley, and find the process easier
than men. 'Our research shows that when it comes
to remortgaging, women unequivocally wear the
trousers,' says Elliot Nathan of the MarketPlace.
'They appear to have a much better understanding
of the process itself and how long it takes.
Increasingly, women are making a greater number
of financial decisions in the home and this
research shows why.'
Girls also take the lead in turning a house
into a home. Latest findings from the
Sainsbury's Bank Home Improvement Index, which
tracks the amount people plan to spend on their
homes over the next six months, reveals that
around 6.28 million women have home improvements
projects worth an estimated £29.29 billion in
the pipeline, compared to just over five million
men. Stockmarket stunners
According to a study by website DigitalLook,
women who
play the stock market/a> actually outperform
men. Its analysis, based on a survey of 100,000
portfolios, shows that ordinary women investors,
living all over the country and dealing in
shares by the internet, telephone or investment
clubs, are consistently doing better than the
well-salaried professionals in the City. During
the period of the study, the average woman's
portfolio rose by 10%, compared to just a 7%
rise for the overall FTSE index and a 6%
increase for that of the average man. Women are
also more demanding of the companies they invest
their money in and more likely to opt for
socially responsible or ethical companies when
buying shares.
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