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Hong Kong
Speeches
Xiaoyan Zhao
Senior Vice President, Roper ASW/U.S.A.
(The following is excerpted from a speech given at the Global Summit
of Women 2001 in Hong Kong, September 14, 2001)
The
world is divided when faced with the hard choice between two basic things --
time and money. Every year, Roper conducts a consumer survey in about 30
countries, speaking to men and women in both the developed and developing world.
We asked people if they had to choose between time and money, what would they
choose? Worldwide, 52% of women would choose money over time, and the number is
identical for men. In Asia, 50% of women choose time while 44% choose money. Of
all regions, this is the biggest gap in favor of time. For Asian men, the shares
are nearly equal at 48% for time and 47% for money. The slight tipping of the
scale toward time among Asian women reflects the fact that we have so many
responsibilities and not enough help to do the things we need to do, and that
many of us are perhaps still part of the tradition that puts less emphasis on
material things.
What would women do with more money?
The hypothetical choices were: Shelter, Mobility, or
Experiences. The plurality both worldwide and in Asia would go for shelter. 36%
of women worldwide would spend $10,000 on a down-payment for a home. The
emphasis is stronger in Asia with 44%, reflecting the relative low level of home
ownership and the need for better dwellings with more space. There is no gender
difference here. For other items of expenditure, women are more likely than men
to want to spend the money on home improvement. Men are more likely to want to
buy a car or PC.
Experience is also important. Worldwide, close to 6 out of
10 women say they often spend money seeking experiences that enrich their lives.
Asian women are even more interested in life-enriching experiences. More women
than men report regularly seeking out educational experiences for their
children. This is true both globally and in Asia. In developing countries, more
women report spending on children’s educational experience than on their own, a
self-sacrificial trait.
In Asia, our nurturing nature is even more evident. We
asked people what topics they are interested in knowing more about. Women are
much more likely to mention food, cooking and parenting; but we are also more
interested in experiences such as travel, arts and culture. Men are more
interested in what’s new: sports, cars, but also politics,
government, business and finance, and computers and the Internet. These gaps are
generally true throughout different age groups. However, computers and the
Internet as a tool to get ahead in life surges to the top of the list for
teenage girls, whereas it’s only second for teenage boys after sports. The
future generation is keenly aware of where their future lies and they want all
the tools they can get to help them get there.
Every year, we ask people to rank the importance of 57
personal values, what we describe as guiding principles that give meaning to
one’s life. We have observed that personal values that relate to inner strength
have become more important to women in the past few years. Self-reliance
is ranked as 9th place up from 11th in 1997. Other
important values with increasing importance all have to do with self-growth and
personal development: knowledge, wisdom, courage, and individuality. This
pattern holds true for Asian women, for example, self-reliance moved up 7 places
to be the 8th ranked most important value for Asian women. One interesting
exception is that importance of individuality among Asian women has gone down to
45th place. This suggests that while self-reliance is crucially important for
Asian women, it doesn’t have to mean to be different from others.
In the 32 countries we surveyed, 37% women
accessed the PC in the past 30 days, an sizable number, but a gap of 9
percentage points separate men and women. In Asia, the gap is 12 points. We say
this is an access issue, not an attitudinal one because globally, women realize
that technology is an imperative, just the same as men. An equal 43% of men and
women feel technology must be mastered if one is to remain up-to-date.
We need inner strength, but we also need personal support.
In our personal values system, protecting the family is the most important
number one priority for both men and women. Enduring love is also very important
to women. In fact, it has increased its importance from 1997 from the 14th place
to the 7th. Personal support also ranks higher today than 3 years ago.
Women also feel our social responsibility and want social stability.
What groups have influence on people?
Family and friends are among the strongest influence
groups for both men and women. Next come teachers and academics. The power of
mass media is more evident with women: they rely more on TV and radio
personalities and programs. 7% of women also look to feminists for guidance.
For those working to help women be self-reliant, women
have turned to teachers for guidance. In addition, two other institutions that
have experienced decline in public confidence elsewhere -- religion and the
government -- still wield relative strong influence with women in Asia.
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