It's good to talk sheconomics

I loved talking to the Trustees’ Council of Penn Women in the luxurious setting of the RAC Club (not a fluorescent jacket in sight) on Pall Mall last night. Those RAC people are amazing, they can not only fix your car but also serve up some damn good crudites ….

The TCPW are a feisty bunch of bright, high achieving women of all ages and I learned a lot from their comments and questions during our lively session.

We had fun with some of the behaviour economics problems from Sheconomics. To a woman they got the intuitive reasoning problem right (three out of four women usually get it wrong) but they did let their emotions intrude on the ultimatum game. OK, shows they place high value on fairness and social co-operation so it came as no surprise to learn that many work in philanthropic or fund-raising roles.

On the subject of females asking for money, one woman said she can shamelessly extract millions of pounds from others for her cause, but can’t ask for a pay rise for herself. That captures the tendency of the female money psyche to put the needs of others first. It’s what makes us loyal friends and caring individuals, but if we’re not careful it could make us poor too.