Women and Financial Security
By Cina Coren
Lifestyles certainly have changed over the last decade or so. When I look around me at the many ways people live, I am always amazed at the variety of family patterns. What used to be considered a classic family unit–father, mother and two children–is no longer typical at all. And the concept of the husband being the bread winner while the wife stays home with the children has gone the way of the icebox. Yup, there’s been quite a lot of changes for women and men in the 50 years since Betty Friedan wrote “The Feminine Mystique.”
First of all, let’s talk about statistics. Despite the adjustments in the way mothers and fathers spend their time in the past half-century, with Dads becoming more involved in child care and Moms working longer hours outside the home, neither spouse has managed to overtake the other in their “traditional” realms. Instead, their roles have converged and not always for the better. In fact, the most recent Pew Research Center report indicated that this new family ‘equality’ has resulted in 56% of working moms and 50% of working dads admitting to the difficulty in balancing the combined responsibilities of work and family life.
Mothers’ attitudes toward work have changed considerably in recent years. Of those mothers with children under age 18, 32% say they would prefer to work full time, an increase of 12% since 2007. This increase may be due to our difficult economic times wherein families require a two-person income in order to make ends meet.
Children? How Many
When it comes to the number of children in a family, it’s surprising to note that the average family has really not changed much at all. Though one might expect to hear that families are having fewer children, the exact opposite seems to be the trend, the only change being the type of family these kids are born into. A noted sociologist, Dr. Steve Martin (no not the comedian!) recently reported that 28 percent of women age 35 to 44, who were approaching the end of their childbearing years, had three kids or more. A decade ago, the figure stood at 25 percent. He also found that the numbers for younger women haven’t changed much, either.
What is even more interesting was that, contrary to popular belief, it was the professional and wealthy moms who are having bigger families with twice as many kids at home, on average, than their high-powered counterparts did back in 1977. Martin also found that college-educated women who put off motherhood until their mid- 30’s were suddenly having families almost as big as everyone else’s.
The man’s role in the family income had not altered significantly with most males continuing to work out of the home and assuming the burden of the family’s financial responsibility.
One Parent, Two Parents
More households today are likely to consist of only one parent or two parents of the same sex, usually females. Since recent reports indicate a reduced income level for these family units, these heads of households are always stressed as to how to make ends meet. I wasn’t able to uncover any evidence that this stress was significantly more than the stress exhibited by married women but one can assume that it was to a certain degree.
In general, I have always felt that women should be able to stand on their own financially no matter what type of home they live in or what their marital status is. Even professional parents in a typical family unit should consider ways of enhancing their income over and above their normal employment. None of us should have to depend entirely on another person for our security and survival. There are choices out there as to how we can do this but probably learning how to invest your money is the easiest and most popular way to make some extra cash.
It is quite surprising that although there are more and more women in the workplace, the number of female investors has hardly increased over the years. I often wonder if women are still hesitant to pit themselves against men who have dominated the field for centuries. What is it that keeps us from forging ahead on Wall Street or Hong Kong?
It’s never too late to start something new and so I have undertaken to learn how to trade currencies and binary options as they seem to be very popular at the moment. Once I feel confident enough and find the right Forex broker, I will try it out for awhile and then I will decide where I want my fortune to come from—stocks, bonds, currencies… I feel more secure about my future just thinking about it. Care to join me?
