I don’t doubt that women are just as concerned about the cost of living as men,maybe more so if they’re in charge of the family budget. Nor do I doubt that,if you ask a woman why she’s been doing more paid work lately,the cost of living is likely to be mentioned.
But things are not always as they seem. For instance,when people complain about the cost of living,their focus is on rising prices. But prices rise almost continuously. What matters more is whether wages are rising as fast as prices are – or,preferably,a little faster.
It’s true that the prices for goods and services have risen at a much faster rate than normal over the past two years or so. But the real problem is that wages – which usually do keep up – have been falling behind since the start of the pandemic. Yet people are far more conscious of the rising prices than of the weak wage growth.
Another distinction that’s clearer to economists than to normal people is between the cost of living and thestandard of living. When people have trouble maintaining the same standard of living as their friends – a comparable car,comparable house,comparable private school – they would often rather blame the cost of living than their need to keep up with the Joneses.
No,what’s driving the change in women’s lives – causing them to behave very differently from their grandmothers – isn’t the cost of living,it’s education. And with education has come aspiration. Aspiration to put their learning to work,to have a career as well as a family,and to be treated equally with men.
I think it all started sometime in the 1960s when,for some unknown reason,the parents of the rich world accepted that their daughters were just as entitled to a good education as their sons. Everything flows from that fateful change in social attitudes and behaviour. What father today would dream of telling his daughter that,being a girl,she didn’t need an education?