This makes the initial customer acquisition extremely significant. More than half of women stated this as their preferred method of buying a financial product compared with just two-fifths of men. Bad news for the Internet and telephone operators. To make matters worse, all women were less comfortable about using the internet for banking than men, with overall nearly four out of ten men comfortable with this idea compared to only one in four women. More than 60 percent of women bought financial products directly through their bank or building society, with only 20 percent using an independent financial advisor.
Women are much less likely than men to read the financial pages of the newspapers.
Overall more than one in three men regularly read the financial pages compared to only one in five women. Although the gender gap in terms of financial product ownership is closing, there are still some social discrepancies which have a long way to go before the gender gap is closed altogether. Women still only earn an average of 82 percent of men's salaries and occupy only 20 percent of management positions. At a more senior level the gap remains wider still, with just 10 percent of board members being female. However, women are becoming more economically active, are improving in terms of numeracy and out perform their male counterparts at every level of the education system.