Women's Day 2022: Money, Money, Money…

(Representational image) The world is still bankrolled by wealth, but wealth itself has gone gender fluid. (Image: Brooke Lark via Unsplash)

If money had a gender, it would be male. Rupees and dollars and yen and euros would swagger into bars and order whiskey on the rocks in a gruff baritone. Cash has traditionally been a bit more cloak and dagger coming into female hands; women, allegedly, busy being spendthrifts and shopaholics who want diamond rings and designer handbags. Money to them an endless secret supply in a bank account somewhere, a dirty word when taken apart in notes and coins, and not a conversation they either crave or comprehend. With all this overhanging mythology, hearing daddies tell mommies not to worry their pretty little head about property or paisa, little girls were growing up to be adult women spooked by currency.

Menfolk – dads and brothers, husbands and sons, uncles and nephews – were the ones who ran things. They counted the money, they stored the money, they lent and borrowed, they ran homesteads and businesses to the ground. It was easy, and indeed downright tempting, to bamboozle the women. Men could marry their way into money, start companies with dowry, invest as they felt, and generally be fools about funds. Any hanky panky was hard to detect. Since it was not ladylike to bring up such matters, women usually caught on to conmen too late, after nest eggs were squandered and souls mortgaged.

Also watch: Women’s Day Special | How to invest today for an early retirement tomorrow

It took a long while for the average Eve to navigate the cash lane, especially as it ran parallel to marriage, menus and motherhood. Seemed a huge favour at first that someone else was willing to look after the fiscal side of things – before it dawned on her, by and by, that her bank balance was inextricably linked to her very life. Real estate rights, inheritance laws, divorce rules – none was stacked in her favour. Biology was keeping her out of the economy. So she had to train herself to not only bring up the matter of salary, pay hike, honorarium, but to also speak up in an audible voice with clear decibels. To look men in the eye and demand it by right.

(Representational image: Kelly Sikkema via Unsplash)

With the number of working women only rising, and many maintaining their own financial hygiene, with pre-nuptial agreement talks initiated by highly paid women just as by highly paid men, with a universal cry for pay parity ringing in the air, women are saving and spending, insuring and investing. It is no longer fashionable to shrug off financial knowhow, and leave it coyly to the boys. If The Tinder Swindler has a male scammer, Inventing Anna has a female one.

In their ’70s hit Money, Money, Money, Abba sang of ‘a rich man’s world’. Alas, the world is still bankrolled by wealth – sheer crass bundles of green, freshly minted notes. But wealth itself has gone gender fluid, and is currently using a unisex loo. It continues its membership in the old boys’ clubs, but has also joined the new girls’ club. This is officially a rich person’s world.

Money talks, but in every human pitch.

Also read: 111 "sexist" questions