Are you a Mad Men fan? I am. I love the characters and the way it recreates life in the 1960s. But there are parts of the show that are hard to swallow — especially the way women are treated. They’re harassed in the workplace, grossly underpaid and generally treated like sex objects by a lot of the men around them. Man, was it tough to be a woman in the early 60s.
While things have obviously changed a lot for us between then and now, we still have more challenges than men — especially when it comes to money.
For one thing, we live longer: In Canada, the average man can expect to live to 77 and the average woman to 82.
We also get paid less. According to Statistics Canada, women earn on average $30,100 a year versus $47,000 for the average man. And of course a lot of us spend fewer years in the workforce while we do things like have kids and stay home to raise them.
But while the deck might seem stacked against us, women can level the playing field by saving early and saving more — since many of us are already in charge of the household budgets it’s something we’re good at.
But we also need to stay involved in the family financial planning and decision-making for the future. Don’t let your partner take charge of the finances without involving you.
As women gain ground in the workplace and in the home, we need to maintain control over our financial destiny too — it’s one of the most important decisions we will make in our lifetimes.
I missed Mad Men when it was originally aired but have been catching up to it since NetFlix came to Canada. Love how they try to avoid anachronisms: great shots of early 60s cars with “fins” and old-fashioned black “rotary dial” phones.