Are Men Bettter At Appreciating The Finer Things In Life Than Women ?

This thought was triggered while reading an article in the Wall Street Journal dated January 5th,2011 " To Dress Well a Woman Should Shop Like a Man " by  Christine Binkley. Her point was that men were practical and bought clothes which fitted well and are comfortable . Women place a priority on trendiness rather than comfort.

I had always thought that men in general  appreciated the better  things in life such as design, whether is is architecture, design, food or other things such as wine or art . And here was a third party and a woman  confirming that. I could not let this opportunity go without writing about it .I  recognize that I am treading on dangerous grounds  and will shortly be getting a earful from my wife and daughter.

If you look around whether it is chefs, architects, artists, designers, tailors,they are predominantly men. Some of you will  point out that  Zaha Hadid the well known architect  and Jancis Robinson the well know writer on wine are women and so on, but for every one Zaha Hadid there are ten men. Since 1926 there have been only four women chef's who have been granted a three star ranking in France. Doesn't that say something ? Perhaps the judges at Michelin are all men ? In the fashion field you see more women than perhaps twenty years ago, but in the other fields they are still a tiny minority.

Why is this the case ? Is it because until recently men made all the buying decisions and men had a better appreciation of what other men wanted ? With things beginning to change, will we now  see the emergence of women in these categories ? After all you are know seeing a gradual increase of professional  women CEO's ( not those who inherited it because of family reasons).Also the increasing number of working women professionals and  entrepreneurs who now have the spending power. I am not sure . I think men wear clothes for themselves. Women choose clothes  for others reasons  - to attract attention and  to be appreciated by members of the opposite sex or to be one up on their  friends and "competitors" .

It will be interesting to see whether the trends change over the next couple of decades