Silly Women, try harder. Brought to you by BBC Breakfast

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The BBC did an article on women being financially dependant on their partners in a relationship. All good as it's something that feminists have being talking about for years.

But BBC presenter and Guest just talked about how silly women are for not putting money aside, and their shock that a 3rd of women would not be able to provide and support themselves in the event of a relationship break down.

Women are not good with money they don't know how to save and are risk adverse to investing.

The advice was women must stop being dependant and save save save and invest........

It was so annoying to watch.

The little film piece, they stopped women in the street, most seemed young and I would guess weren't mothers, They were all 'well I'm independent' 'I don't rely on my partner!'
The others were women in their 70s saying they had no choice when younger but women should know better by now.

BBC also identified the problem generation are women in their 30s-40s again stressing how shocking and sad that these women are in a generation that should know better.

all I can find on the piece is this tweet.

mobile.twitter.com/BBCBreakfast/status/1161891127886327809

someone else felt the same as me watching it too (screenshot)

mobile.twitter.com/BBCBreakfast/status/1161891127886327809

The BBC don't live in the real world.

It isn't just a 3rd of women who would struggle in a relationship breakdown. A quarter of all UK adults have no savings. Many of us live pay check to pay check and would be in deep shit if we lost our poorly paid jobs.

This is just upper middle class sneering at the plebs.

The tone of it annoyed me too.

It's general not women who are dependent on men, it's mothers. Childcare is expensive and often not compatible with working long hours, part time work is often low paid. When children are young, women haven't the spare money to invest in risky investment plans - any money needs to be safe and easily accessible for emergencies.

It would really help mothers if people would stop blaming them for their own vulnerabilities and look at how easy it is to work with children or how easy it is to get back into the work place after taking any time off.

It would also help many women if the government stop fucking about with women's retirement age. It's difficult to plan when the rules change so much.

This is just upper middle class sneering at the plebs.

Yes, yes it is. Makes me see red.

The advice was women must stop being dependant and save save save and invest...
Well there's something in that, to be honest. Do women spend more money than men on luxuries instead of saving and investing? I wouldn't be surprised when you think of things like the beauty industry which is primarily targeted at women.
No need to make out that women are silly though, just to suggest being a bit careful about money and thinking long term.

Do women spend more money than men on luxuries instead of saving and investing? I wouldn't be surprised when you think of things like the beauty industry which is primarily targeted at women.

It might be interesting to do that analysis. Don't forget to include cars over and above what's strictly necessary to get from A to B, 'tech'....

Sounds crap, I've mostly been good with money but there was a period after XP left and wouldn't pay maintenance that I had to stop saving and reduce pension contributions as I couldn't work as much. Now DD is older and I can work more I'm able to save again. XP thinks I like shopping too much but he smokes and goes to the pub most nights, so literally pissing money away .

Probably best to remember SKY Sports packages and football shirts aren't exactly necessities either.

Wouldn't want plebs, men or women, to have any small pleasures in life.

Wome are dreadful what with spending their money on shoes for their children and such other frivolities

But is this just a case of the BBC being a mouthpiece for the government? The changes in the benefits system have disproportionately affected women with caring responsibilities - so much easier to blame women for their air head ways than to place the blame where it belongs which is at the government’s feet.

I don’t really see how anyone can advance the argument that women are crap with money relative to men, when there are more Male politicians/bankers/ceo’s And the economy is fucked?

I don't know why I was surprised the BBC spun it the way they did. There was so much that could have been talked about and other questions to posed as to why.

it just really left me feeling like it was a slap in face for women again. They never mentioned children or child care or mothers at all.

The over riding message was "WOMEN stop expecting the hard working men to pay for you"

I think I started the thread because I just really needed to rant. Nothing changes, it just seems like a another study to beat women with.

This is just upper middle class sneering at the pleb

I disagree. Upper middle class women are only protected due to possible larger divorce settlements. Otherwise they are just as susceptible to being stay at home mothers who find themselves trapped by financial dependency.

The biggest risk is for those women who don’t get married but give up work to have children or use their salary to pay childcare bills and food (which often seem to fall to mothers rather than be considered a family expense) so the savings and assets (home, pension, car) belong just to the man.

Many women who had paid full stamp etc all their lives and financially independent of their partners, then had their pension stolen by the government, resulting in them , at 60 suddenly being dependent on their partners. Not to mention that they are still doing the bulk of informal caring. A real scandal.

Women investors have consistently been shown to get better returns (*no source but I've read it in lots articles!)

Oh look, Emily Lou Montgomery has done a quick vid to tell us what to do.

mobile.twitter.com/BBCBreakfast/status/1161999212915113985

save, save, save, bridge gabs in your pension and if in a relationship talk to your partner about money don't be scared.

There you go everyone it's Soooo simple.

Jesus Wept.

I'm actually genuinely at the moment trying to find a fund that invests in women led companies.

A more interesting issue for the BBC would be why do women have less money even though they are actually just as capable (or incapable) as men at managing it.

oh and this

I don’t really see how anyone can advance the argument that women are crap with money relative to men, when there are more Male politicians/bankers/ceo’s And the economy is fucked?

Have they read their own new stories.

Oh dear. I'm really angry now. How unwomanly of me.

By not making explicit that mothers are struggling, it prevents greater awareness of how much taking on caring responsibilities and unpaid labour running families disadvantages women. It's only on mumsnet that I repeatedly see older women advising younger women to be careful, to go back to work or to be married and to ensure family finances are equitably shared. As a young woman I never heard any suggestion that marriage was a financial protection.

So much ignorance from the BBC.

Women give birth. Having children is a team effort, generally financial sacrifice is made as part of that team effort. Nobody enters that agreement expecting it to blow up in their face! Most women have no idea they have married an abuser until the first child is on the way.

90% single parents are women.

Household with kids and one adult trying to make ends meet, no options.

v.s

Household with one adult. ~(who may choose to opt for a two adult household plus kids and may choose to pay a little maintenance to elsewhere kids)

Wonder which one is more skint Why yes that'll be the silly wimmin who did the job of putting a roof over their kids heads...

It’s just government propaganda to increase women’s participation in the labour market which would increase GDP...which is in the negatives such that we are a whisker away from falling into another recession right now.
That’s why they also told women to save....especially to invest in more risky things...they want your money to prop up the economy.
Don’t fall for it.

People in relationships don't put money aside usually. I'm the main earner in our relationship and really don't expect my husband to put money aside.. If we divorce the stuff we've built up since marriage is half his anyway including my pension.
I do think women who live with men and are the lower earner and have kids and don't marry are naive. Marriage isn't about god or the state it's about equalising your financial assets if you view yourselves as a team (and if you don't what are you doing together?)
My brother is a house husband but I doubt he is saving money secretly from my SIL. They are married so he should also be financially protected if it goes tits up. He manages their finances anyway.

I do think though that there probably is something in is being conditioned into certain things, I've been fairly good with money but I did used to think investing wasn't for people like me, whether that's a sex thing or a class thing I don't know, so I do think it's worth talking to women about money matters, just not patronising us!

I'm of an age where sex discrimination has been a massive part of my life path. Sexual harassment, being paid far less than (less able) male colleagues, being turned down for a mortgage because I was female! A bank manager once ringing my dad asking him to secure a loan. I shit ye not.

Then children come along and your career is blown out of the water and you're financially fucked (for most women).

The BBC is not fit for purpose and is run by a massive bunch of overpaid woke wankers who couldn't give a shit about anyone other than themselves. Trust me. I've met quite a few of them. Tossers, the lot.

I disagree with a couple of comments on this thread.

The OP makes the comment
BBC also identified the problem generation are women in their 30s-40s again stressing how shocking and sad that these women are in a generation that should know better.

What are women in their 30s and 40s doing?

Could it be 'raising young children'?

Also this particular generation have had particular problem because of the affordability of housing/cost of renting and the effects of the economic crisis where wages have been stagnant.

This is just upper middle class sneering at the pleb

Again I disagree with this. You can be very middle class or even upper middle class and have a nice house etc etc, but if you have a large difference in income between you and your partner then you might have a big problem. You might have this because you work part time or don't work at all because its cheaper in terms of childcare for you not to.

This means you can have a huge mortgage/rent, but its effectively paid for by a single income rather than two incomes.

If something happens you are very trapped because of this difference in income. It means your ability to leave the relationship is extremely hard and/or if your partner dies or goes AWOL for some reason, you are left extremely financially exposed and potentially in trouble.

I think the issue is more that all the women who work for BBC Breakfast are fearlessly independant working women because they have to be for that environment. And they mainly associate with likeminded women.

It actually is more a reflection on attitudes towards SAHM or have more low paid part time jobs. Working Class Women might be more likely to be in this position for financial reason, but its certainly not something exclusive to class.

The number of posters on MN who talk about saving for maternity leave but their partner, the father of the expected child, doesn't contribute to that. And I bet when the kids needs school uniforms it will come out of her earnings not his. When my parents divorced, school uniforms[1] and indeed most of our clothes came out of Mum's pocket. In the meantime, my Dad could somehow afford a boat and trailer and landrover to tow it, whilst bitching about how much child support he had to pay.

Maybe the reason why women don't save is because, after paying for kids, there's nothing left to save? And somehow this is women's fault?

[1] There's also a whole other thread that could be written about the physical, mental, and emotional labour of Mum dragging the kids around the shops to buy the uniforms and shoes. We would have gone to school in shoes that didn't fit, no bras, and holes in our jumpers[2] if my Dad had been buying uniforms.

[2] He actually put elbow patches on my school jumper sooner than replace it when it went into holes. The patches were a different colour from the jumper. Mum hit the roof when she saw it.