Despite increased efforts to narrow the financial gap between men and women, there’s still no shortage of cultures that prioritize males when it comes to divvying up the monetary spoils.
In China, when divorcing couples can’t agree on how to divide their assets, the family home typically goes to the men, even though Chinese women (and their parents) contribute to more than 70 percent of mortgages and 90 percent of cash purchases of homes. Because homes are often registered under the man’s name, the wife forfeits that investment by law.
This is one of the common practices still in existence today that demonstrates the old Chinese saying: “Raising a daughter is like watering someone else’s garden.”
However, the financial world’s dated viewpoints on men and women aren’t just limited to foreign countries. In the U.S., males are often trusted to handle the family investments, something author Meredith Jones says should change in her new book, “Women of the Street: Why Female Money Managers Generate Higher Returns (And How You Can Too).”
Jones writes that women’s specific characteristics can, in some situations, offer higher value. Women tend to be more conservative when it comes to money management, both personally and professionally, and a Vanguard study revealed that during the 2007-08 financial crisis, accounts led by women lost 13 percent, while accounts led by men lost 16 percent.
Women were less likely to sell at or near market lows, and thus yield better returns, in part because of their conservative nature. MORE
This article is from Rich Paul’s website. He is the host of the Rich Paul Show and is a paid advertiser on WJR
