| Okay, so we've been looking at the attitudes of various social and cultural groups towards the management of their personal finances - |
| how important they feel it is to save money, |
| and what they save their money for. |
| One aspect that we haven't yet considered is gender. |
| So if we consider gender issues, |
| we're basically asking whether men and women have different attitudes towards saving money, |
| and whether they save money for different things. |
| Back in 1928 the British writer George Bernard Shaw |
| wrote in his Intelligent Women's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism |
| that 'a man is supposed to understand politics. economics and finance' |
| 'and is therefore unwilling to accept essential instruction.' |
| He also said, 'A woman, having fewer pretensions, is far more willing to learn'. |
| Now, though these days people might question a lot of the assumptions contained in those statements, |
| recent research does suggest that there are some quite fundamental differences between men and women |
| in their attitudes to economic matters. |
| Let's look at what men and women actually save for. |
| Research studies of women in North America have found that... |
| women are far more likely to save for their children's education |
| and they are also more likely to save up in order to buy a house one day. |
| The same studies have found that men, on the other hand, |
| tend to save for a car, |
| which, by the way, takes a surprisingly large amount of the household budget in North America. |
| But the other main priority for men when saving money is their retirement. |
| When they're earning, they're far more likely to put money aside for their old age than women are. |
| Now, this is rather disturbing, |
| because in fact the need for women to save for their old age is far greater than for men. |
| Let's consider this for a moment. |
| To start with, it is a fact that throughout the world, |
| women are likely to live many years longer than men, |
| so they need money to support them during this time. |
| Since women are likely to be the ones left without a partner in old age, |
| they may therefore have to pay for nursing care, |
| because they don't have a spouse to look after them. |
| Furthermore the high divorce rates in North America are creating a poverty cycle for women. |
| It is the divorced women who will most often have to look after the children |
| and thus they need more money to look after not just themselves but others. |
| So what can be done about this situation? |
| The population in North America is likely to contain an increasing number of elderly women. |
| The research indicates that at present |
| for women, it takes a crisis to make them think about their future financial situation. |
| But of course, this is the very worst time for anyone to make important decisions. |
| Women today need to look ahead, think ahead - |
| not wait until they're under pressure. |
| Even women in their early twenties need to think about pensions, for example, |
| and with increasing numbers of women in professional positions, |
| there are signs that this is beginning to happen. |
| Then research also suggests that |
| women avoid dealing effectively with their economic situation |
| because of a lack of confidence. |
| The best way for them to overcome this |
| is by getting themselves properly informed |
| so they are less dependent on other people's advice. |
| A number of initiatives have been set up to help them do this. |
| This College, for example, is one of the educational institutions |
| which offers night classes in Money Management, |
| and increasing numbers of women are enrolling on such courses. |
| Here, they can be given advice on different ways of saving. |
| Many women are unwilling to invest in stocks and shares, for instance, |
| but these can be extremely profitable. |
| It is usually advised that at least 70% of a person's savings should be in low-risk investments |
| but for the rest, financial advisors often advise taking some well-informed risks. |
| Initiatives such as this can give women the economic skills and knowledge they need |
| for a comfortable, independent retirement. |
| The increasing proportion of elderly women in the population... |