The new face of wealth wears lipstick

[rawstory]

As seen on Raw Story, http://www.rawstory.com
(Reposted with new headline as per moderator)

The new face of wealth wears lipstick
By Susan Palmquist | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

Britain has long been known as a friendly place for high-achieving women. It's had a female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, and Queen Elizabeth II has ruled for 52 years. Now there's a new milestone: For the first time women make up a larger part of the wealthy population than their male counterparts.

The country has 299,300 women with £200,000 (about $363,800) or more in liquid assets - cash, shares, and bonds - compared with 271,700 men.

That means that women make up about 52 percent of the wealthy population in Britain, versus 47 percent for men. And their numbers have been steadily increasing since the late 1990s: The number of affluent women rose from 231,000 in 1997 to 272,000 in 2002.

Observers say there are several reasons behind the trend - women moving into careers with higher salaries, starting their own businesses, and investing wisely, and more equitable division of inheritances. They also hint that in the United States, women may also overtake men in terms of wealth.

"I think there are a couple of reasons why women are becoming wealthier in Britain," says Anne Brookes of Coutts, a private bank owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland. "Firstly, there's been a change in the traditional role of women overall - they have more of a desire for independence. And there's greater equality in the professions like law and banking."

"Women are increasingly commanding higher salaries and accumulating wealth throughout their careers," says Oliver Guirdham, a financial analyst with Datamonitor PLC, a business-information company, and author of a report on Britain's wealthy citizens.

Full story: http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0614/p12s02-wmgn.html

[amazona]

1. thought it was caused by life expectancy

Women have nowhere near the earning powers of men in the U.S. -- they end up with the money because men die significantly younger and the last wife in line gets the loot. Is this not true of England?

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. That's part of it

from the article:
""Demographics also play a major role in the number of high net-worth women," says Mr. Guirdham, who notes that 53 percent of the affluent are over 65. Women make up a large proportion of this demographic group.... Spousal inheritance also becomes an important factor.""

[demnan]

2. Not all women wear lipstick

[chicaloca]

3. no shit!

I thought the article was going to be about some new trend where rich women wear a lot of lipstick or something.

[northzax]

5. not really suprising at all

women in many careers are now as successful as men (as it should be) plus, the men have to spend all their money on the women. simple.