Summer clearout

Accumulated cuttings from my desk on Paula-related issues:

1. ‘City urged to close gender boys gap’. (FT)
A Commons Treasury Committee argues that financial services companies should overhaul their remuneration policies to tackle the ‘alpha male’ culture. The GPG (Gender Pay Gap) requirements have certainly illustrated dramatically how the gap for bonuses is generally far bigger than for salaries. Whether the alpha male culture exists is another matter; personally I think it does, but Cordelia Fine, whose work I respect, advises us to be a bit cautious on this.

2. ‘Oprah inspires women investors everywhere’. (FT)
Very few of the people featured as financial investors in the papers are women. Oprah Winfrey is cited as an eminent exception. But the key issue is why women generally still shy away from investing. Part of the answer is, of course, that they earn less over their careers, and so have less cash to put into the game. They also have a different attitude, according to Fidelity Investments, thinking that their money is saved for the family rather than themselves, and so are less willing to take risks.
And – PP factor 3 – they are less self-confident about their capacity to invest well – though somewhere else I noted that female investors do just as well as male ones, in fact better as they have a more realistic view of their abilities.

3. ‘Wives lie about being the main breadwinner.’ (Times)
A study of couples in the US where the woman is the main breadwinner shows that both parties are likely to lie about their actual incomes. Women in these relationships played down their earnings, while the men exaggerated theirs. It’s described as ‘manning up and womanising down’.

That’s all for now – I’m off on holiday…