Women and money

It began as an innocuous remark. After spending an afternoon indulging in some delicious retail therapy at a favourite store, which happens to be wonderfully on a sale, I say to a friend, "You must go. Almost everything is 50 per cent off," and then add conspiratorially, "and you know what happens to women when they hear the words 'SALE'."

The friend to whom I say this is also a woman, and so naturally she knows exactly what I mean. She giggles knowingly.

And suddenly it dawns on me: the reason why women go a bit mad at sales - buying up every thing in sight, even stuff they don't need, have never needed and will never need in the near or far future - is this: women undervalue themselves.
 

Centuries of being considered inferior, worthless and unequal perhaps contribute to women responding so enthusiastically to any thing underpriced. The reason why women rise up to embrace cheap deals is because they themselves have internalised the feeling that they are just not good enough or deserving of full-price value.

Perhaps this is why there seem to be more bargains, freebies and discounts available on products traditionally purchased by women, like household goods.

This mirroring of female uncertainty and doubt in their spending habits is but a small indication of their torturous relationship with money. Another indication of it is the fact that most women billionaires feature on rich lists as inheritors of wealth from male relatives, but there exist very few women amongst them known for their high living and extravagant lifestyles.

Ninety-year-old Lilliane Bettencourt, who topped the Forbes' list of the world's richest women, is known as much for her altruism and the philanthropic work undertaken by her foundation as for the lavish gifts she presented her friend, photographer-actor François-Marie Banier. Most biographies of her mention these and her generous funding of politicians such as Nicholas Sarkozy than anything else.

Christy Walton, the widow of John T Walton, son of Sam, the founder of Walmart, who inherited $18.2 billion on the death of her husband in 2005, is noted for her philanthropy and contributions to causes such as natural history, architecture and education. Her sister-in-law, Alice Walton, who is also on the rich list, is a noted patron of art.

None of these women are known to spend lavishly on themselves, and rather, are renowned for either squirreling away their wealth or funneling it in to activities and causes away from themselves. Could this be another symptom that they undervalue themselves?

The subject of women and their relationship with money is such a fascinating one, especially when one begins to see it through the prism of gender politics. It emerges that through their acts of frugality, bargain hunting and saving, women are only reflecting back to the world the short shrift they have been so unfairly afforded.

Most women I know, even the rare successful ones, who have risen to become wealthy and are independent in their own right, carry huge burdens of fear and guilt about their achievements, as if they have to make up in some other way for the audacity of their material success.

In such a scenario, the thought of Imelda Marcos with her stash of 3,000 pairs of shoes, not one amongst them bought at a bargain, is almost an uplifting one - uplifting for one's sole!

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Malavika Sangghvi is a Mumbai-based writer malavikasangghvi@hotmail.com