Why Richard Keys and Andy Gray are wrong

Robert Powell investigates whether it's men or women who are usually caught offside when it comes to dealing with their finances

So Richard Keys and Andy Gray think women don’t know the offside rule.

I’ll be honest; I’ve only just got to grips with the offside rule. But that’s because I don’t like football and can’t think of any job I’d enjoy less than an assistant referee – apart from maybe a Sky Sports commentator!

So if either Richard Keys or Andy Gray do happen to stumble on this article I gladly invite them to ridicule my lack of soccer knowledge, they can even use the comment box below to do it!

You’ll have gathered by now that I’m not the biggest fan of the (ex-) Sky Sports duo that got caught making sexist remarks last week, but the whole row did get my mind whirring as to which of the sexes is stronger when it comes to managing money.

So after trawling through the web and sifting through my e-mail inbox – here’s what I found...

Debt

We did some of our own research back in March last year into which sex was more careful with their cash – and the results were pretty much unanimous.

The average man carries £2,176 of debt on his credit card whereas your average woman only has £1,987 on hers. It’s no surprise then that Santander estimates that more men (37%) are planning to shift debt onto a 0% balance transfer credit card in 2011 than women (25%). But what doesn’t fit with our stats is that the average amount that men will shift is only £942 – while women plan to transfer £1,151.

Our own research also shows that 57% of men have taken out a loan at some point in their lives while only 49% of women have. What’s more, twice the number of men admitted that they miss loan or credit card repayments ‘all the time’ when compared to women.

Figures from Prudential add to this notion that men are more debt-laden than women. The Pru’s Class of 2011 study estimated that more men will retire in debt than women (23% vs. 18%) and will owe a significantly larger sum of money. The stats show that the average man will retire with £39,500 of debt while the average woman will only have a burden of £25,100.

Family dynamics

Mum really does know best if new research from M&S Money is to be believed. 36% of Brits say that their mothers have had the most influence on the way they handle their money, compared to 32% who say it is their fathers.

What’s more, we are twice as likely to consult our mum as we are to speak to our dad when it comes to advice about our daily spending. But this shifts when we are thinking about making big purchases like houses and cars - in this situation one in five of us would turn to our fathers while only 11% of us would ask Mum.

This isn’t surprising when you consider that 55% of people say that their father took control of their family finances when they were growing up, while only 40% said it was their mother.

Savings

This year’s HSBC Savings Map of Britain shows that men on average keep £27,687 in their savings pot – that’s over £10,000 more than the amount kept by women (you can read more about the HSBC Savings Map at Why we should all save like a Welshman).

The stats also show that on average men have savings of 67% of their annual income – that’s around eight months’ salary. Women will keep savings amounting to just 49% of their annual income, or 5.9 months’ salary.

But why would men save more than women when all the other stats suggest that we’re more profligate when it comes to money? Obviously there are several reasons, but one may be that men simple earn more and hence have more money to save.

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• Ed Bowsher writes:

  Women are more careful with money than men

  Our research shows that when it comes to cash, women are the more sensible sex.

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The gender gap

The last set of figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the pay gap between men and women is still 10.2%. Now, it’s all too easy to jump up and down at this stat and start exclaiming that it is an indication of the sexism present within our society.

But in reality, as the ONS explained when they released these figures, the difference is because of the variation in working patterns between men and women. To put it bluntly, men choose higher paying jobs with more hours than women. But why?

One explanation offered by Dr Catherine Hakim of London School of Economics is that women simply do not want to be financially independent and in fact actively look to marry rich husbands. Dr Hakim goes on to argue that most couples did not seek or want equal roles in the family and it was for this reason that women did not earn as much as men.

But I don’t buy this reason. Yes, it is undeniable that this traditional ‘hunter-gatherer husband and weak housewife’ relationship does exist (and there’s nothing wrong with that if both partners are happy), but to suggest that this is, and should be the norm, is extremely damaging.

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• Donna Ferguson writes:

  95% of women like me do this

  I thought I was unusual, but it turns out I'm not.

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Yet looking back over the research I’ve considered in this article, this myth of the man as the more powerful gender is evident again. Men have higher savings, men are more profligate with credit cards, men take out more loans and men control the family finances and advise on large purchases, while women’s financial prowess lies in dealing with everyday household issues in a way that’s largely more sensible but decidedly less powerful than men.

But this financial skill and sense can’t be an innate genetic talent. In fact, I believe it is born out of the myth that women are more sensible with money because they are weaker financially and they are weaker financially because they are weaker generally.

This myth is peddled by Richard Keys and Andy Gray when they suggest that no woman could contribute to the powerful and impulsive male game of football because they are innately weak and sensible. And this is why, despite no reference to money or finance cropping up within their sexist rants, Richard Keys and Andy Gray are still wrong.

To read more about the relationship between gender and money head over to 95% of women like me do this.

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