Why money is the key to becoming a SUPER WOMAN
AFTER my divorce from Terence Conran in 1962, I discovered it was almost impossible for a woman to get a mortgage. A lack of steady income wasn’t the problem; a mother of two young sons, I had a job, but while male work colleagues could get a loan, I could not.
Eventually my mother guaranteed me, so at last I bought our family home from Terence — for three times what he had paid for it. But the endless wrangling with lawyers and being told, by them and by bankers, that women didn’t ‘understand money’ (and so, by implication, should not be allowed to have any of their own) lit the feminist fire in me.
I wanted to stamp out this inequality. Over the past 20 years, I have tried to do this — via maths. Maths is money and money is power. I want women to get richer and stay richer. To achieve this, they need to be financially literate. Even today maths remains an unpopular subject for girls.
I created a series of groundbreaking, free online maths books for girls. And last week, as founder of The Maths Anxiety Trust, I was given an award by King Charles for services to mathematics education. I am astonished and delighted by the honour — but there is still much work to do.
MY DIVORCE from Terence has led me to help improve the lives of women. I was 36 and a single mother when I became the London Daily Mail’s new women’s editor. In the autumn of 1968, I became the launch editor of the ground-breaking Femail.
Until then, newspapers had only ever included a women’s section about knitting, dress patterns, recipes and the odd interview with charity organisers. In Femail, for the first time, articles were written by women for women. We wrote about our weaknesses and fears.
And we weren’t afraid to ruffle feathers. Femail tapped into a feeling that life could be better for a woman.
A year later in 1969, viral pneumonia meant I had to stop full-time work and leave the Mail. Undeterred, I led a torchlit march of 700 women, demanding equal pay. Britain’s Equal Pay Act of 1970 was the result. Sadly, half a century later women are still behind male colleagues in the pay stakes. My guide for the first generation of working mothers, Superwoman, became a bestseller in 1975, leading to a tiring book tour — and a diagnosis of ME (chronic fatigue syndrome). I continued to struggle with my health and, realising I’d probably need expensive medical help for the rest of my life, I decided I’d better try to write an international bestseller. I set my sights on America, realising it offered five times the sales of Britain and Ireland. It took 18 months to write Lace and I was anxious because I knew I might never find a publisher. Luckily, it sold to Simon & Schuster in 1982, with film rights, for a million dollars. Six more bestsellers followed. I’ve used a third of the money I made to become what I call a social entrepreneur, which means you oversee how your money is spent. In 1998, I founded Mothers In Management, which aimed to improve working conditions and flexible practices for working mothers. Three years later, I founded The Work-Life Balance Trust, which lobbied for flexi-hours for both men and women. I was given an award in 2004 for services to equal opportunities.
It was also in 2004 that my campaigning for maths began. I was asked to find a good maths textbook for my goddaughter-but couldn’t find any. Back then one in four children left school maths illiterate. I joined the dots and decided to write a maths course using my own experiences. This became Money Stuff, a collection of online maths books for girls.
I founded The Maths Anxiety Trust in 2018 to raise public awareness of the condition known as Maths Anxiety and to find solutions.
For too long, we’ve accepted women’s apparent aversion to handling and discussing money. I’m sure this is part of the reason why in the top 100 British businesses, nine CEOs are women and 91 are men.
Women have come a long way since the launch of Femail in 1968. None of it was easy. I’m proud that Femail remains at the centre of debate with a thriving readership. For me, it was the first step towards improving the lives of women.
As for my recent awards, my sons are proud of me which means so much. I’ve also received 7,000 emails, most saying ‘it’s about time’. That’s how I feel about women now; it’s about time we got the equality and respect we deserve. We’re not there yet.