In the people, in the words of Romanians we also find this expression that: “women are greedy for money and, implicitly, they look for men with money to support them”. Is that so or is it just a saying derived from a misogynistic mentality?
Psychology and money
Gender is not the same as (biological) sex. This distinction is important to understand how “our views on biological sex influence gender identities.” (Judith N. Martin, Thomas K. Nakayama).
The British sociologist, Giddens believes that there are two theories regarding gender identity and sexuality: that of Sigmund Freud, being the most influential and most often discussed, and that of Nancy Julia Chodorow, a feminist sociologist, who describes masculinity and femininity as a loss, in the sense that boys and girls separate from their mothers differently: boys radically reject closeness to their mothers and dedicate themselves to personal achievements, while girls, separating from their mothers, continue to develop their relationships by transferring their attachment to their future husband and children.
Women are greedy for the accumulation of material resources, not out of personal interest, out of selfishness, as one would think, but from the need felt by them to have their family safe. Elisabeth Cashdan, a professor at the University of Utah, states that, for a woman, wealth is a need that she feels is very important in order to be able to raise her children and, precisely for this reason, young women try to attract rich men with a good social position, willing to help her with the stability of her future family. She is looking for a man who will give her security, and financial security, at the same time, to build a family and raise her children.
Psychology in investments
The different way of thinking and behaving is also transposed into the area of investments. Women are the conservative ones, preferring to know their money, safe, with a small but constant profit, while men are the ones who take risks, in order to obtain a greater profit. Women invest too little in stocks, much more in low-risk investments, going very much into those investments that preserve wealth, namely: bonds and government securities, to the detriment of men who create financial investments based on stocks. These behaviors of men and women are complementary: men constitute the wealth necessary for women’s need to raise their children, and women preserve it, taking care to satisfy this need for a long time, without fluctuations in income. There are also women who invest and have a high tolerance for investments, at the same level as men, except that, most of the time, they take a considerable emergency fund as a protective measure: money available at any time if fluctuations on the capital market are large, so that they can financially support their family.
The man in ancient times was the one who assumed the risks. He was the one who went hunting to provide food for the family. The woman was the one who took care of the house, the children and was in charge of preparing the meal from the food procured by the man. All the characteristics that the contemporary man presents have to do with the prehistoric man. Vision is such an example. The man has a vision focused in front, being able to aim and target over a long distance. This was the ability necessary for hunting. The woman, on the other hand, has good accuracy in the sides. Peripheral vision is specific to the woman, being able to easily perceive what is happening around her, in a small area. The fact of taking care of the house, of her children, determined this ability to perceive any danger that lurked for her family.
Each has its role, as is evident, in the founding and development of the family; the nucleus of society, as it was once called, in the history of the Romanian people, this communion. Each gender has the necessary skills to support a family. Each comes with its own capabilities. These intertwine to support dependents, respectively children, as well as to support each other. Exclusively risky behavior can lead to serious financial problems if there is no woman to provide the necessary support for financial stability and to develop, through her sense of security, the investments made by the man.
The difference between gender and sex
I stated at the beginning that gender and sex are not one and the same thing.
In the article, I referred to men and women, but the reference was made at the gender level: feminine – masculine. Maybe you are reading this article and you are a woman, but you invest, without having an emergency fund and you take risks every day. Well, biological sex, the one you were born with, does not also determine the same gender. Gender refers to the construction of the brain. Those capacities that allow you to have good peripheral vision, a high sense of ownership and security are characteristics of the female gender. At the opposite pole, the inability to orient oneself in close space, but in distant space, is specific to the male gender.
Sex is what you are born with. Biology determines whether you are a woman or a man, while the construction of your brain can give you the capabilities of your sex or the opposite sex.
Success in becoming aware of money (and the ways in which you make financial decisions)!
Sources: (these can be accessed if someone wants – they should not necessarily be in plain sight, on the blog, but hidden in a box)
Cashdan, Elisabeth (2001). What De Women Want in Anthropology. Contemporary Perspectives, Needham Heights, Allyn Bacon.
Chodorow, Nancy Julia (2001).The Power of Feelings: Personal Meaning in Psychoanalysis, Gender, and Culture. Yale University Press.
Giddens, Anthony (2001).Sociology. Bucharest: BIC-All Publishing House.
Martin, Judith N., Thomas K. Nakayama. (2008).Intercultural Communication in Contexts. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. p. 24.
Balkin, D. (2000).Gender effects on employee participation and investment behavior with 401 (k) retirement plans.University of Colorado.
Gneezy, U.; Thaler; Yu, F. (2004).Information Availability and Investment Behavior.University of Chicago.
Bernasek, A.; Shwiff, S.. (2001).Gender, Risk and Retirement. Journal of Economic Issues, 2, pp. 345 – 356.
Sunden, A; Surette, B. (1998).Gender Differences in the Allocation of Assets in Retirement Savings Plans.American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 88. pp. 207 – 211.
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