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‘Men are losing financial control’

August 10, 2007 at 9:34 am

A new study commissioned by National Savings and Investments (NS&I), has shown that rising sexual equality is having a profound effect on finance management within the household. Women are today far more likely to be the joint, or even sole, breadwinner of the house compared to previous generations. Indeed, NS&I have concluded from the study that, by 2020, there will be a complete shift in power with more women than men having the final say in financial decisions within their family.

The findings come from government figures and interviews carried out by the the think tank Future Foundation, and the changes noted are quite striking. At present, 14% of women earn more than men and, by 2030, this figure is estimated to rise to 40%. Whilst historically, women were far more likely to stay at home and look after the family, nowadays women are becoming more ambitious because of the opportunities afforded them. Indeed, the study found that 27% of today’s young women would prefer to be the main earner in their household when the time comes.

The reasons why women are earning more today are numerous. Not only are women more likely to have careers and delay when they settle down with children, but it has been found that women and doing better in higher education than their male counterparts. For example, this article shows that in the medical profession, newly-qualified women are outnumbering men by almost three to two. As William Nelson, of the Future Foundation, explains: “We are seeing the emergence of a generation of women who are better educated, more ambitious, and more financially confident than any before them. This generation is already more likely to handle day-to-day financial matters than their male partners, and demands to have at least an equal say in the big decisions.”

It is interesting to speculate how this shift in power will affect the decisions made within the average household. Researchers from Loughborough University and the Policy Studies Institute conducted a series of interviews in which they found that the earner of any household is naturally more likely to feel more entitled to the money than their partner and is hence more likely to spend it in the way they see best. They also found that where the breadwinner is the mother, she is is far more likely to spend it on family and children than when the earner is the father. Such results show that financial power-shifts, which are becoming more and more prominent throughout the country, can have a huge financial effect within families. The question is, then, what will these changes mean for the overall dynamic in families?

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