My experience helps explain why so many women are uncomfortable investing. Starting in high school, I often peppered my dad with questions about personal finance and business. He usually dismissed them, saying he hoped my two sisters and I would never have to worry about those things. Later, he engaged his sons-in-law in long chats about investing while keeping conversations with his daughters light, focused mainly on family matters and ski conditions.
He doesn't do that anymore. Now that I've been a financial journalist for 10 years, my father respects my knowledge and confides in me about investments and business concerns. I don't fault him for not teaching us about investing. He came from a generation that believed men would take care of their daughters' financial needs. Today, more parents are schooling daughters early in the ways of money, and more resources are available to do this. Why do girls need special attention? ''Boys have informal economies from age 6 by trading marbles and cards, while girls collect,'' says Joline Godfrey, founder of Independent Means, a Santa Barbara (Calif.) company that promotes economic independence among girls 14 to 24. ''By the time boys start trading stocks and bonds, it's just another part of the game.''
According to a 1998 Louis Harris & Associates poll of 1,115 ninth through eleventh graders in 52 schools, girls and boys are equally interested in money and finance, but girls lag behind in knowledge and confidence. Only 48% of girls, vs. 64% of boys, were willing to learn how to make money in the stock market. ''A risk-taking girl gets fewer positive cues than a risk-taking boy, and investing is still thought of as a risky operation,'' says Heather Johnston Nicholson, director of research at Girls Inc., a New York group dedicated to empowering girls, which commissioned the poll. ''We need to change the message.''
Bibi Schweitzer of Larchmont, N.Y., is one 15-year-old girl who got the right message. When she was 11, her father, George, taught her about the market and gave her $100 to invest in any public company. She picked McDonald's. ''I thought it was so cool that I owned a part of McDonald's and that my money could make money without me doing anything,'' says Schweitzer, the only girl in Mamaroneck High School's 40-member stock market club. Helped by annual contributions and advice from her father, she has since built a $6,000 stock portfolio that includes Gucci, Johnson & Johnson, America Online, Estee Lauder, and Coca-Cola, as well as Stein Roe Young Investors Mutual Fund. ''I buy what I know and understand,'' she says.
Girls-only programs can help. Both ClubInvest and Camp $tart-up, sponsored by Independent Means, are worthwhile (table). Broker Charles Schwab provides financial support and curriculum guidance for these programs. ''Investing has always been an old boys' network, and women are still overcoming that,'' says Carrie Schwab Pomerantz, founder Charles Schwab's daughter, who is vice-president for consumer affairs and head of the women's initiative.
Girl Scouts of America and Salomon Smith Barney host an annual five-day financial camp for girls in sixth grade and above in Waltham, Mass. ''We want to convey to girls the importance of being self-sufficient and not relying too heavily on others to handle their nest egg,'' says Meg Greer, a camp co-founder and Salomon Smith Barney consultant. Girls Inc. runs an economic-literacy program for girls 6 to 18. The 10 weekly sessions, taught at 1,000 sites nationwide, include stories and simulated stock market games.
Your daughter could learn about financial matters on her own, as I did. But why not play an active role now? She'll be better off later.
Copyright 2005, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
