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The Dawn
of the New Female Warrior
And when a woman's will is as strong as
the man's who wants to govern her, half her strength must be
concealment.
Women lie about their age; men lie about
their income. For generations they were relegated to living a life full of menial tasks. Simple benefits, such as the right to educate themselves and vote, were denied. They had to fight for every single right that males took for granted. They were made to believe they were second best at most and could never compete with their male counterparts. They were told that males were better investors and superior academically, and that their function was to bear children and keep the house in order. (In other words, "barefoot and pregnant.") Many women did not believe this. They fought their way to power, they fought for every little simple thing that we males took for granted and they won. The battles were beyond comprehension to most. The pioneers for women's liberation (including, but not limited to, Gloria Steinam, Betty Friedan, Simone DeBeauvois, Camille Paglia, Andrea Dworkin and Madonna) who stood up and advocated equality and power, were scorned, derided and demeaned. In spite of overwhelming challenges, they were not deterred. They persisted, they fought through and now they are here to stay. Women are in the process of taking back everything that they have been denied for generations. For those males who do not recognize, acknowledge and embrace the power of the female, your days are indeed numbered. The females have risen and they have risen fast. This is a super bull trend in motion and nothing and no one can stop it. Those that seek to oppose it will be trampled into oblivion. It is a sea change, which is growing into a flood. Anyone who tries to stand in the way of this will be drowned. Here is the irony: Every male was, at one point in life, a helpless bundle of flesh that was carried in the womb, and brought forth into this world by a female. It was a female who nurtured him and gave him the opportunities to be who he is and become what he has become. For this great sacrifice, her only reward was denial of all the benefits to which male society was entitled. When you seek to oppress something through force, it will rise, and when it rises, it will grow to be many hundreds of times more powerful than it should have been in the first place. We all talk about market manipulation and how the Fed and central bankers are holding the price of Gold down and pumping the equity markets up. Well I ask you one question: what about the biggest atrocity and the largest manipulation that was ever committed? The illegal, relentless and unjust repression and suppression of the female species? There can only be peace and harmony when the species responsible for the survival of the human race is treated with the respect it deserves. Just in case you think I am some soft yellow-bellied male, let me talk a little about my past and upbringing. My grandfather got married when he was in his '30s and his wife was barely 18. He was a dominating male who believed a woman’s place was to have kids and keep the house clean. Somehow he drummed similar ideals into my father. Although my mother did not keep quiet like my grandmother, she still accepted and understood that my dad was in charge. My dad attempted to ingrain the same thoughts into my head. However, for some strange reason, I could not fully accept his ideologies. He did, however, have enough influence on me to at least make me think that males were, in general, superior to females. I questioned his ideas, but could not put my finger on what about them was troubling me. Then, one day, I had an epiphany! When was 7 years old I wanted to have a picnic and I told all my friends to save a little money and we would all put it together to buy food and drinks. Now you all know that 7 year olds generally don’t like females, but I used to watch how organized little girls generally were. So I asked them to join us to. D-day arrived and almost none of the guys had the money. Every single girl had the money. They were even willing to forgive the guys for not bringing the money. Now look at what the little boys did---they all were ashamed and angry with the girls and then started attacking me for even inviting the girls. I am embarrassed to say I did not have the guts to fight. I backed down and returned their money and the event was cancelled. I was a coward, because I knew the girls were right. They had done nothing wrong and yet they were punished because I was too frightened and intimidated to oppose the others. What went on here? The boys saw that the girls did something that they did not do--something that would have made the picnic a success. Rather than congratulate the girls, they became angry with them and turned on them. Does that make any sense? No. It doesn't make any PRACTICAL sense. But the reality is that the boys were angry, jealous and felt inadequate. They were consumed with shame and guilt. So what did they do? They lashed out at the girls (who had done what they were supposed to do) in order to make themselves feel better and stronger. They could not accept that the girls could do things better than they could. After all, they were only girls! I went home very sad and vowed never to repeat that mistake again. What is even more remarkable is that the girls forgave me so easily for what I had done. When I went back and apologized for being such a weakling, they did not give me a big lecture, but seemed to understand my plight. They forgave me for the cruelty of the other boys. They understood why I was weak at that time. Even at the age of 7, girls knew about emotional intelligence, kindness and the ability to overlook discrimination. This was my epiphany and what started me on the path of appreciation and respect for women. I have always been a fighter and I will argue with any male or female if I can defend my point. But I will not support facetious assumptions, which have no proof and are the narcissistic ramblings of males who think that gender is the basis for limitation of freedom. And now as a male I am going to do something for those girls I let down as a little boy. In a series of articles below, I intend to present evidence that, in many aspects of life, women are far superior to the male. What does this have to do with investing you ask? It has everything to do with it, because women are better investors. They are better students and now there are more females graduating then males. Females are the fasted growing group of individuals hitting the millionaire league. Pay back is very close. The female species are far more intuitive, understanding and forgiving than their male counterparts. So the males that decide to accept and appreciate them for who they are will reap a ton of rewards. For those that do not, I only have two words for you: "Start Running.”
The Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine and medical schools nationwide saw increases in the variety and volume of applicants this fall. After a six-year decline, the number of applicants to U.S. medical schools rose in the 2003, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The 35,000 applicants marked a 3.4 percent increase over the previous year's applicant pool. At MCG, medical school applications rose higher than the national average. For the 180 freshman positions, the institution received 1,450 applications in 2003, up from 1,287 in 2002. “Our applications increased 12.7 percent,” said Dr. Mason Thompson, associate dean for admissions and student affairs in the School of Medicine. “Applicants from Georgia were up 14.4 percent from fall 2002 to fall 2003.” Nationwide, the application increase is attributed to more women applicants – 17,672 – an almost 7 percent rise over last year's total. At MCG, 745 females and 703 males applied and 97 males and 83 females enrolled.
Female directors hold 779 board seats at Fortune 500 companies, or 13.6%, up from 12.4% two years ago, according to a census that will be released Thursday by Catalyst, an organization dedicated to advancing women in business. In 1995, the first year of the census, 9.5% of the directors were women. The number of seats held by women of color increased to 3% from 2.6% in 2001.
More women than ever are entering the stock market. (They now constitute 47 percent of all investors, according to the National Association of Securities Dealers.) Evidence of female investing acumen is rapidly accumulating. A study of more than 35,000 discount-brokerage customers by economists at the University of California at Davis found that between 1991 and 1997, women's portfolios earned, on average, 1.4 percentage points more a year than men's. Among single people, the difference was even more pronounced, with single women earning 2.3 percentage points more per year than single men. Records of investment clubs reveal an even wider performance gap: Through the end of 1998, all-female clubs had an average compounded lifetime return of 23.8 percent a year, compared with just 19.2 percent for all-male clubs, according to the National Association of Investors Corp. (NAIC)
The National Association of Investors Corp. (NAIC) has its own set of interesting statistics. Between 1960 and 1996, the percentage of NAIC member clubs that were all women skyrocketed from 10% to fully 50%. When you consider that some clubs are men-only and others are mixed, this means that the majority of all NAIC member clubs is all women. In fact, three out of four new clubs formed are all women. This speaks volumes. Women are increasingly interested in investing, and are turning to clubs as a way to learn and invest. The NAIC reports that the number one goal of all-women clubs, ahead of turning a profit, is to learn about investing. They may do this out of genuine curiosity and a burning desire to learn -- or because they realize that it's vitally important for them to be able to tend to their own or their family finances. After all, according to a recent Bureau of the Census survey, 75% of the elderly poor in America are women.
UK women outrace men in millionaire run Vijay Dutt, HindustanTimes.com
The fact that Britain now has more women millionaires than men would add to the theory floated recently that men would be redundant for the continuance of the human race. Fortunately, that day is a few hundred thousands year away, but in today's Britain women do not need men to pay for their wardrobes, sports cars or flights to exotic destinations. Women can do all that and still have enough loose change to buy an apartment in central London. According to an authoritative study by the research company Datamonitor, there are now 2,99,300 female millionaires compared to 2,71,700 male. The reasons cited for the sharp rise of millionaire women include trends such as increasing number of divorce, sexual equality in schools and equal treatment of sons and daughters in inheritance.
Merrill Lynch believes the number of women investors was growing fastest in North America, particularly in the United States. "Women are starting businesses at twice the rate of men and about a third of the working women there earn more than their spouses," said Mr. Marks. The report noted: "North America has more female HNWIs. Women already make up 43% of the North American affluent segment (above U.S. $500,000 in financial wealth) and that percentage looks destined to rise." Mr. Marks noted the number of wealthy women investors in the U.S. also is growing at a faster rate than that of men. From 1996 through 1998, the number of wealthy women in the U.S. grew 68%, while the number of men grew only 36%, according to data from The Spectrem Group. (That study defined wealth as having investable assets of more than U.S. $500,000 or earning more than U.S. $100,000 a year.)  Why Women Investors Tend Often to Do Better Than Men "However, this is changing as women around the world are becoming more savvy about investing because of seminars, books, the Internet and investment clubs. For example in the U.S., "the Internet and investment clubs have made it easier for women to get the information they need to be more effective investors." Ms. Nashaat suggested there were several other key reasons why women investors often did better than men. She said women:
World Wealth Rises The World Wealth Report also noted the number of high-net-worth individuals worldwide grew by almost 3%, just under 200,000 individuals, to 7.1 million people last year. Their combined wealth world rose approximately 3% to U.S. $26.2 trillion in 2001 (29.4 trillion euros), despite drops in most of the world's equity markets.
During 1999, the National Coalition of Girls' Schools and Goodman Research Group conducted a survey of 4,274 alumnae of girls' schools. Achievement indicators suggest that girls' school alumnae enter college with test scores above the norm. Once in college, they major in science and math at a higher rate than females and males nationwide. The average SAT Math and Verbal scores of NSGS alumnae were both 588, compared to 477 Math and 427 Verbal nationally for females and males combined during the same period. Across cohorts, NCGS alumnae consistently outscored females and males nationwide on both sections of the SAT. Respondents' average college G.P.A. was 3.3. In science and math, NCGS alumnae majored at a higher rate than females and males nationally (13% NCGS compared to 2% females and 10% males nationally, as reported by the National Center for Education Statistics). NCGS alumnae are leaders at work and within their communities. Eighty percent (80%) of respondents had held leadership positions since graduating from high school. Leadership positions in the workplace and in college were especially common. Half of alumnae surveyed remain connected in some way to their girls' school. Universities revise action programs Marquette University, The Marquette Tribune After decades of giving females an advantage in admissions at universities nationwide, officials for various affirmative action programs are beginning to reverse the trend. In summer 2000, a federal judge ordered officials at University of Georgia to start giving males more of a break in admissions because females are becoming more numerous than males on many college campuses. "More and more females are seeking a college education, while men's participation is declining," said Roby Blust, dean of undergraduate admissions at Marquette University. There are currently 800,000 more females than males enrolled in colleges and, according to The Washington Post, women have held that advantage nationally since 1978. Federal projections claim females will continue to dominate population statistics and are expected to make up 60 percent of college student bodies by 2010.
Degrees of Separation Gender Gap Among College Graduates Has Educators Wondering Where the Men Are by Michael A. Fletcher, Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, June 25, 2002; Page A01
BALTIMORE -- As Morgan State University President Earl S. Richardson surveyed the sea of newly minted graduates at the school's 126th commencement last month, his joy was tempered by a question that has grown too conspicuous to ignore: Where are all the men? Not only were the head of student government, the senior class president and 96 of Morgan's 141 honor students’ women, but so were two-thirds of the university's 860 graduates. At colleges and universities across the United States, the proportion of bachelor's degrees awarded to women reached a post-war high this year at an estimated 57 percent. The gender gap is even greater among Hispanics -- only 40 percent of that ethnic group's college graduates are male -- and African Americans, who are now seeing two women earn bachelor's degrees for every man. The trend, which began in the mid-1980s, has sparked concern among everyone from business leaders to demographers, who applaud the growing academic success of women but maintain that the lopsided graduation rate may foretell significant problems. Men had made up the majority of the nation's college graduates since at least 1870, when the first national survey of bachelor's degrees awarded by colleges and universities found 7,993 male graduates, 1,378 female. Except for a brief period during World War II, that remained the case until female college enrollment overtook male enrollment in the late 1970s. By the early 1980s, women began outnumbering men among four-year college graduates. Since then, the number of female bachelor's degree recipients has risen to 698,000 this year, according to U.S. Department of Education estimates. The number of male college graduates has increased much more slowly, to 529,000. "Women are deeply engaged in the educational process, while the boys are stuck where they were decades ago," said Tom Mortenson, a senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, a Washington research organization.
Linda Alvarado's mother didn't work--at least that's how she saw it. She didn't count taking in ironing from the big houses up the hill as a job. But ironing was work she never wanted her only daughter to do. "That was her gift to me," says Alvarado. "She did the housework so I could study." Now, Alvarado jokes she may have learned that lesson too well. These days, her husband, a Colorado fast-food franchiser, oversees domestic duties while she dons a hard hat to prowl the site of Denver's expanding convention center. The project is just one of dozens her commercial contracting firm is building in several states. At 50, Alvarado is not only a self-made mogul in a field notoriously hostile to those of her gender; she's emblematic of a generation of women who have changed the face of the American workplace. In 1952, the year she was born, barely 30 percent of women held a job. Now, they make up nearly half the U.S. labor force--an estimated 41 million wage earners. Like her, 6.2 million women own companies, contributing nearly $2.4 trillion to the economy. Others have stormed even the most stubborn male bastions, whether trucking or tech. That has transformed everything from the nation's labor laws to its notion of the family. "The speed of the change is astonishing," says Lynn Weiner, a dean at Chicago's Roosevelt University, who has written about the history of the female labor force
The poll, conducted in fall by the National Association for the Self-Employed, shows that startups of women-owned businesses have grown by double digits annually from 2000-2003, significantly outpacing growth in the 1990s and outnumbering men-owned startups by nearly a 2-to-1 ratio in 2003. Almost a third of women surveyed say they started their businesses since 2001, and nearly 10 percent say they launched their current enterprise this year. In contrast, 5.1 percent of businesses owned by male survey respondents started in 2003. The National Women’s Business Council estimates that 9.1 million micro-business owners, or companies with fewer than 10 employees, are women. CONCLUSION
The trend is very obvious, it’s in a blazing super bull market and I for one don’t intend to fight it. That is why we at the Tactical investor have surrounded ourselves with as many wise women as possible. In my last article The Art of Investing or The Science of Destruction. I stated that one of my best advisors was an 80-year-old nun (actually she is 81 years old now). It is very hard to pinpoint just one tool that has helped me become a better investor. But if I was pressed to come up with one, I would have to state that the day I decided to treat women as equals and accept that their ideas could at times be better than mine, was the day my investing skills soared. I would never replace the advice I get from my close circle of female friends and associates for anything in this world. I have finally seen the light and the darkness is behind me. The reason that females are rising so fast is simply because men have taken it for granted that they are entitled to most of the things females have to work for. As a result the male has become lethargic and slow. Just like the dinosaurs, if he does not wake up soon, he will be blasted into the ice age. If the male takes the time to respect and appreciate what women have to offer, they can embrace this new trend and co-exist in peace without bickering like small kids. The wise male can embrace this new trend and incorporate these new traits into his game plan. In this way he can not only improve himself and but also maybe even surpass the ones that provided the enlightenment. Look to work with your significant other in the area of investing and watch your results improve tremendously. However, education is still important, so educate yourself on the concepts of Mass Psychology and Technical Analysis. My next article on this series will deal with how men can deal with this new powerful emerging force. I would like to thank Janice Dorn, M.D., Ph.D. for her helping me take my idea and rough notes and help shape them into something coherent and meaningful. For the record Janice is one of the first females ever in the US to receive two doctorate degrees (M.D. and Ph.D.). Janice was the second woman on the faculty of a major Medical School in the United States. Her credentials are impressive to say the least.
Diplomate,
American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology We at the Tactical Investor would like to mark 2004 as the year of empowering the new female investor. So we are setting up a special forum where we hope females from all over the world can post suggestions to help and empower other women. Write about your trials, setbacks, and successes or anything you think will help your fellow female investors. Males are welcome to post their suggestions to. Empowering The New Female Investor
The woman's vision is deep reaching; the
man's far reaching.
Man made one grave mistake: in answer to
vaguely reformist and humanitarian agitation he admitted women
to politics and the professions. The conservatives who saw this
as the undermining of our civilization and the end of the state
and marriage were right after all; it is time for the demolition
to begin.
Every theory of love, from Plato down
The opinions of FSU contributors do not necessarily reflect those of Financial Sense.
FSO
Webnote: As a freshman at Colorado State University in 1969, I was an "activist." I was caught up with women's rights and even participated in raiding the men's steam room. THEY had all of the facilities. WE had the old gym. Eyes were opened from that one act and a shared schedule followed. WE women may not have had a winning football team, but WE paid the same tuition THEY did. I am very glad that I am a woman and a married one at that. Jim and I will celebrate our 27th anniversary this year on January 8th. I wouldn't give up a year of it... the good or the bad ones. We just keep getting better at being ONE.
Mary
Puplava |