Women Not Actually Morons With Money

by Liz Colville

A theory that women are bad with money has long been perpetuated, partly because data shows that we spend more on things like clothing and “services” than men. But hello, men buy things! Including “services.”

Unfortunately some women in finance, like Suze Orman, have cashed in on this stereotype and, while certainly helping some women, have also made millions off our alleged SJP-esque ways. If you were not aware, Hannah Seligson points out in Slate that there is really, truly a book called SHOO, Jimmy Choo! The Modern Girl’s Guide to Spending Less and Saving More, and another one called Does This Make My Assets Look Fat?

Kimberly Palmer, a finance columnist for US News & World Report, did some research and determined that men’s spending has simply been a convenient blind spot: men spend a lot more than us on things like cars and booze (and in my experience, it’s not because they’re buying us drinks! Unless they are my nice gentleman friends or my brother-in-law), and they also tend to have more credit card debt. They make riskier investments, too. Saving turns out to be our Achilles’ heel, but not just women’s — the whole country’s. The reason these women-only finance books sell is, in the end, probably just a confidence issue, Seligson says. Enough of that!