What Do Women Want?

"I never met a SRI investor who wasn't a woman," said a broker quoted somewhere recently. An exaggeration, of course.

More generally, the question of how women approach investing remains perplexing, especially to men. We know that women, on average, tend to be more conservative than male investors. And because they don't believe they know it all, women investors tend to be more successful.

M. J. Dunleavey, remembered on this blog from her years with The New York Times, tries to offer clues to what women want in her WSJ column. For instance, women like to ask questions of their investment advisers, but they also feel under time constraints. Lots of questions but no time for answers?

Wall Street will continue to wrestle with the question of how to relate to women. Funny thing, though – none of the women trust officers, brokers and investment advisers I've met over the years ever felt it necessary to ask me what men want.