Two Stereotypes About Women And Money That Aren’t True
“It’s a man’s world”. It is slowly moving towards an equal world, but a whole lot of work is still needed for this to happen. Concepts of ‘who does what’ have to change, gender stereotyping needs to go and typecasting women with certain attitudes and behaviours has to stop completely.
Women and money
Patriarchal society has traditionally, confined women within certain boundaries. Generation after generation grow up with the same stereotypes about women that they have imbibed from their families, society, silly jokes that does the rounds on the internet and many other such sources.
“Women can’t drive well”... “Women are bad in mathematics”… “Women cannot earn as much as men”… are some of the illogical gender based stereotypes prevalent in society today. As if the male species is the epitome of perfection!
There are enough myths about women and money too. So, let us destroy some of them here:
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Women love to spend money on shopping
Shopping is an essential need of every human being. All of us have to shop for our basic needs. Statistics from U.S Censor Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics have surprising revelations. Men spend twice as much on alcohol as women. Men spend more money on entertainment and eating out than women! Women spend more than men for personal grooming needs, but what the heck…here too most of this is to make the men in their life happy! If we combine all the expenditure of the year, then men spend more money than women. So let us just rephrase the myth and say that “women spend more wisely than men on their shopping needs.”
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Women cannot manage money and investments
Let us first understand the origin of the myth. Men have largely been perceived as bread winners of the family. Hence, women were only given some amount of ‘pocket money’ to handle (which she handled very well!). Yet the society concentrated only on large amounts of money. With changing times, women earn as much or more than men. Women can also handle their finances very well, and independently. Proof of this lies in specific websites like Citibank’s Women & Co. And Prudential’s Women & Money that specially caters to women’s investment needs. So, it is time to change this perception!
If you are a parent, then the responsibility lies on you to not pass on these stereotypes to your sons and daughters. It is high time this change becomes a permanent belief in our society.
Sources
http://www.creditnet.com/blog/do-women-spend-more-money-men
https://www.themuse.com/advice/5-myths-we-believe-about-women-money
Written by Ruchi Rajan
