From Fashionista to Frugalista: The Next Generation of Female Spenders
The Wall Street Journal
By Kelly Evans
From Fashionista to Frugalista: The Next Generation of Female Spenders
In case the disappointing release of last year’s “Confessions of a Shopaholic” didn’t make it clear, young women aren’t exactly in a spendthrift state of mind these days. Now, a new survey sponsored by Citigroup and conducted by Hart Research Associates suggests that frugality may prove lasting.
Even as their outlooks on the economy are brightening and their own finances beginning to improve, women ages 18 to 39 are increasing their savings, paying off debt and catching up with overdue bills in a larger proportion than those over 40 years old, according to the survey released Tuesday.
Specifically, 61% plan to reduce their level of debt over the next six months, compared with roughly half of older women. Some 48% said they are saving and investing more today than they were previously, compared with less than a third of older women. And 43% say they will put extra cash towards overdue bills, compared with 29% of women over 40 who plan to do the same.
And it appears these aren’t just earnest resolutions, but indicative of actual behavioral shifts. More than two-thirds of young women report they have already made progress reducing debt levels, for example, compared with 61% of older women.
Marketers and retailers: take note. After all, these women are not only a prized demographic but may also represent the future of U.S. spending power. Women already make up the majority of high school valedictorians and college graduates. Last year, women surpassed men on U.S. payrolls for the first time. Women’s median income has risen by nearly two-thirds since 1970 while men’s has stagnated, and about a quarter of working women now out-earn their husbands.
The transformation has already sparked a new kind of chick lit: books such as “Women Want More: How to Capture Your Share of the World’s Largest, Fastest-Growing Market,” published by the Boston Consulting Group, and the arrival last week, for example, of “Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better,” by Maddy Dychtwaldand Christine Larson.
The real test may come on May 27, with the release of “Sex and the City 2.” The first movie, released in May 2008, was a resounding success, grossing about $150 million — though it preceded the intensification of the financial crisis and recession in late 2008. “Shopaholic,” meanwhile, couldn’t have been timed worse, landing as stock markets plumbed their lows in March 2009. Will the sequel’s premise, centering on lavish Dubai, resonate? It seems unlikely, the recent recovery in consumer spending notwithstanding. If the movie does manage well, it may be for different reasons entirely, though ones which studios often use to good effect: nostalgia, and escapism.
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Original URL: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/05/11/from-fashionista-to-frugalista-the-next-generation-of-female-spenders
Women’s Gains Improve Lives of Everybody
Forth Worth Star Telegram
By Jane Glenn Haas
Maddy Dychtwald has influence.
I mean, she and her husband, Ken, are co-founders of Age Wave, a pioneer consulting firm on boomers and their impact on everything from postage stamps to caregiving. She’s a sought-after speaker, author of three books, and she’s a demographer.
More important, she’s a woman. That’s what gives her clout in the marketplace, in politics, in the financial world.
In her latest book, Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better, she provides what Publisher’s Weekly calls “a riveting exploration of female economic emancipation in the 21st century as women all over the world are becoming financially powerful enough to stand on their own and tip global power balances.”
The advance rave review on the book was published last week.
“Why shouldn’t women be equal?” she asks me. “Why should gender define roles in life?”
I’ve read the galleys of her book, and now we are talking about the impact of her work before it even hits the bookstores.
With her co-author, Christine Larson, she’s writing an online blog (Huffingtonpost.com/maddy-dychtwald) that already has men —
mostly men over 50, she says — complaining.
“If women gain power and influence in politics, finances, whatever, they think it’s a loss for men not a win/win. Some people are scared I’m upsetting apple carts,” she says.
Well, here are the facts, guys and gals:
At the turn of the 20th century, women couldn’t vote, couldn’t choose when to get pregnant, couldn’t pursue higher education, couldn’t have credit in their name or own property in some states, couldn’t expect to find a job outside of domestic work or factory labor.
A hundred years later, history is rushing forward for women, Dychtwald says.
More women than men are graduating from high school, college and graduate programs in the U.S.
Women hold 49 percent of all nonfarm jobs and 51 percent of all management, professional and related positions. About 40 percent of U.S. firms are female-owned. The number of women earning $100,000 or more tripled between 1991 and 2001. Women control 51.3 percent of the nation’s private wealth.
Dychtwald tells me about her interviews with 118 women. They talked about business, the marketplace, families and the future of men.
Men, particularly younger men, are going through “role revolution,” she says. Men are re-imagining their lives, spending more time with family, feeling less shackled to careers as they are no longer the sole breadwinner.
“We are moving away from ‘women’s concerns’ toward a future of ‘family concerns’ involving men as well as women,” she says.
“Betty Friedan once told me her goal was that women no longer be measured like men. We have finally reached a place where we can be our authentic selves.”
Our Time: How Women’s Roles are Changing
Orange County Register
By JANE GLENN HAAS
Maddy Dychtwald has influence.
I mean, she and her husband, Ken, are co-founders of Age Wave, a pioneer consulting firm on boomers and their impact on everything from postage stamps to caregiving. She’s a sought-after speaker, author of three books and she’s a demographer.
More important, she’s a woman. That’s what gives her clout in the marketplace, in politics, in the financial world.
In her latest book, “Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better,” she provides what Publisher’s Weekly calls “a riveting exploration of female economic emancipation in the 21st century as women all over the world are becoming financially powerful enough to stand on their own and tip global power balances.”
The advance rave review on the book will be published tomorrow.
“Why shouldn’t women be equal?” she asks me. “Why should gender define roles in life?”
I’ve read the galleys of her book, and now we are talking about the impact of her work before it even hits the bookstores.
With her co-author, Christine Larson, she’s writing an online blog (Huffingtonpost.com/maddy-dychtwald) that already has men – mostly men over 50, she says – complaining.
“If women gain power and influence in politics, finances, whatever they think it’s a loss for men not a win/win. Some people are scared I’m upsetting applecarts,” she says.
Well, here are the facts, guys and gals:
At the turn of the last century, women couldn’t vote, couldn’t choose when to get pregnant, couldn’t pursue higher education, couldn’t have credit in their name or own property in some states, couldn’t expect to find a job outside of domestic work or factory labor.
A hundred years later, history is rushing forward for women, Dychtwald says.
More women than men are graduating from high school, college and graduate programs in the U.S.
Women hold 49 percent of all non-farm jobs and 51 percent of all management, professional and related positions. About 40 percent of U.S. firms are women-owned. The number of women earning $100,000 or more tripled between 1991 and 2001. Women control 51.3 percent of the nation’s private wealth.
Dychtwald tells me about her interviews with 118 women. They talked about business, the marketplace, families and the future of men.
Men, particularly younger men, are going through “role revolution,” she says. Men are reimagining their lives, spending more time with family, feeling less shackled to careers as they are no longer the sole breadwinner.
“We are moving away from ‘women’s concerns’ toward a future of ‘family concerns’ involving men as well as women,” she says.
“Betty Friedan once told me her goal was that women no longer be measured like men. We have finally reached a place where we can be our authentic selves.”
(Jane Glenn Haas writes for The Orange County (Calif.) Register. E-mail her at jghaas@cox.net)
Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/05/03/1249884/our-time-how-womens-roles-are.html#ixzz0mu3p015u back