In Money Matters, Women Finding Dollars and Sense

With all the success they have achieved in the modern economic world, women are still widely presumed to face money-management issues and obstacles that don’t commonly confront men.

Surveys repeatedly show, for instance, that women are more conservative in managing their own or their family’s finances, and more inclined to seek the help of an adviser than is the typical do-it-yourself man.

Older women in particular often must overcome conditioning they received in times past that dealing with matters like cash flow, investments and financial planning was “man’s work.”

Women of any age will tell you they still run into many forms of institutionalized discrimination--in access to credit, for instance. This arises even though the financial markets themselves are famously impartial about whom they help or hurt.

Whatever your point of view, the differences are getting more scrutiny than ever before as the presence of women looms larger and larger in the whole business of personal finance.

“Women are making more money in the workplace, investing in company 401(k) programs, and are taking a more active role in their own financial planning,” said Judith Bramson, a vice president at Aetna Mutual Funds in Hartford, Conn.

“We are finding, however, that by being too conservative, women are less likely to invest aggressively or to hold their money in an investment for the long term, possibly minimizing their opportunity for profit.”

In a recent survey of fund investors conducted for Aetna by Research Corp. of America, 71% of the male respondents said they acted as their own financial adviser, compared with just 34% of the female participants.

Calvert Group, sponsor of a mutual-fund family that recently launched an investment program aimed at women, argues that circumstances play a key role:

Women on average have lower incomes but live longer, leaving them more goals to try to achieve with fewer resources as they plan for their retirements and old age. On top of that, their working years tend to be interrupted much more frequently than men’s.

“Women often put their careers on hold to raise families,” a report prepared by Calvert said. “Then they may or may not return to their former job or career--opting instead for additional education, or perhaps to start a business of their own.

“The result isn’t a straight-line growth in wealth, but instead a cyclical pattern of growth.”

Nobody claims to have simple, all-inclusive answers to any of these issues and questions. But most everybody agrees that as women gain more knowledge about money matters, more light will be shed on the whole subject.

“Mature women have a good base of knowledge about many investment products,” said a report by IDS Financial Services of Minneapolis, which also has completed a survey focusing on women as money managers. “But significant gaps exist when it comes to specifics about investing basics.”

The IDS report said its survey respondents, for example, split almost evenly into three camps when asked if they believed rising interest rates to be favorable news for the bond market, with 37% saying yes, 33% saying no, and 30% saying they didn’t know or offering no answer.