Women getting richer, yet are ignored

Although the earning power of women is fast growing and could soon surpass the combined GDP of China and India, the fairer sex still feel ignored at their workplaces, a new survey has found.

Notwithstanding their increasing economic power, women are made to feel underserved and ignored by companies they are associated with, said a global study by the Boston Consulting Group.

"The current way companies appeal to women is to take a male product and paint it pink," Michael Silverstein, the coauthor of Women Want More, a book based on the BCG survey, was quoted as saying by CNN.

According to World Bank estimates, about 1 billion women currently work worldwide and their annual $13 trillion earning is expected to reach $18 trillion by 2014, double than the combined GDP of China and India, with an increase of $5 trillion in the next five years.

China's current GDP, is $4.4 trillion and it is expected to reach $6.6 trillion by 2014. India's DGP by that time is expected to touch $1.8 trillion.

The BCG survey of 12,000 women in 40 regions around the world found that financial services -- such as providing ibanking, investment and insurance products and advice -- are worst at connecting with female consumers.

"In doing so, the industries risk alienating the greatest growing spending bloc on the planet," Silverstein argues.

Women, who are increasingly the drivers of consumer spending, globally control $20 trillion in annual consumer spending and by 2014 that could climb to $28 trillion, said the report.

The latest US labour report also showed that the number of working women in the world's market was almost equal to the number of men, underlining the growing importance of "womenomics".

By the end of the year, working women in the US are expected to outnumber men. However, women have not got the parity in workplace in the US. They still earn only 77 cents for every dollar men do. And the ranks of female CEOs are still thin.

"Most of the big companies are worked by men, for men," Silverstein said. "Only 38 or so of the top 400 companies are run by women."