UK women have 50% more to spend

Posted : 14-09-2005

British women have around 50 per cent more money to spend compared to 20 years ago, according to a new study.

Marks & Spencer Money has released a Female Price Index (FPI), which illustrates the differences between women of today and their 1985 counterparts.

Women now represent more than a third of the UK's full time workers, and are earning more, meaning their spending power has risen by 50 per cent.

Luxuries a 21st century woman can now indulge in, include: owning their own car; taking more than one holiday abroad each year; buying large amounts of 'me' products such as jewellery, beauty treatments and perfume, and eating out at expensive restaurants regularly.

However, 20 years ago the average woman would have had to share a family car, would only have gone on one holiday a year to a close destination, such as Europe, and would have had to share their partner's financial services, according to the FPI.

As women are more financially independent, they can regularly take out home insurance and car insurance themselves, rather than rely on families or spouses.

The FPI shows "a nation of women increasingly free to treat and reward themselves," says David MacKay, commercial director of M&S Money.

"Women have a greater influence than ever before over household finances, with a third of today’s women being wholly financially independent," he added.

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