MONEY COMMENT
Why Women Lose Out Financially

By Cliff D'Arcy
June 2, 2003

Following the birth of our first child a few years ago, my wife had eight months' maternity leave before returning to her job on a part-time basis. Our increased expenses, her reduced income and my move to the Fool earlier this year mean that we have to tighten our belts a little more these days.

Previously, my wife's employer enticed mothers back to work by giving them a "returner's bonus" of three months' salary, based on their pay before they went on maternity leave. However, her company has now dramatically improved its maternity policy and, as a result, all mothers now receive full pay for the first six months of their maternity leave.

As we're expecting another baby later this year, this maternity pay uplift is great news, especially as Statutory Maternity Pay is greatly inferior. However, my wife's employer is generous for a reason: a high proportion of its workforce are women and the company wants to avoid losing skilled and experienced workers. However, despite this generosity, we're still going to be forced to manage our money even more actively (but only for the next thirty years or so)!

Given our personal circumstances, I was intrigued by an article in this weekend's Observer magazine. It asked readers the following question: guess what proportion of children under three have a mother who works full time? I was surprised to learn that the answer is a mere 16%, around one in six. Almost half (49%) have mothers who don't work and a third (33%) have mothers working part-time.

What astonishes me even more is the fact that the proportion of women who work full-time - around one-third - is the same as it was a century ago. Furthermore, although three-quarters of modern women work (three times as many as fifty years ago), all of this increase is accounted for by part-time jobs.

So, despite media perceptions, hardly any mothers of small children work full-time and, in general, most women work part-time or not at all. When you put this with the fact that women typically earn 20% less than men, live around seven years longer on average, suffer more on divorce and mostly don't have any pension arrangements, the odds are stacked against women becoming independently well-off - boo!

However, all is not lost: instead of relying on men (besides, many of us are hopeless with money), women need to learn for themselves how to budget, borrow, save, insure and invest sensibly. We recommend investing in a copy of A Girl's Best Friend Is Her Money. Written by Jane Mack and Jasmine Birtles, our guide to feminine financial fitness is ideal for readers of any age at just £9.74 (including a discount of £3.25 and free P&P).

Jane and Jasmine are also running a women's workshop entitled "Taking Control of Your Money", covering personal finance and investment. The first, on 15 May, was so over-subscribed that we organised another for 19 June, which promptly sold out almost immediately. However, one more is planned for this autumn, so watch this space!

Alternatively, there are many articles on our Fool covering all of these subjects so, whether you're male or female, start getting Foolish here.

More: Women Race To Get A Money Makeover| Why Women Need To Save More

My thanks go to Oliver James of the Observer for inspiring this article.