Gender Studies: An Apercu or Two

Once again, I will preface my remarks by noting that I have about sixty papers to slog through. These are left over from last week--I couldn't handle grading with that awful cold. So an apercu or two. (Note: could somebody tell me how to put a cedilla in? I feel the spirits of Mr. Giordano and Mr. Moore wielding their red pens.)

Talbots encore: A few weeks ago I boldly declared that I thought it would be a good idea to buy Talbots stock. Even though the Motley Fools classed Talbots as their scary Halloween stock, I was intrigued by Talbots' new aesthetic and my feelings were confirmed by comments around the blogosphere by various women of a certain age. I even bought a few things at a fab sale.

Upshot: I ended up returning everything I bought, because, as my daughter said, nothing was a significant "upgrade." BUT I checked the stock today: when I first looked at it, it was $1.80; now, a few months later, it is $3.80. I was only going to buy 100 shares, and, believe me, a $200.00 profit is not even a dust mote against the losses in my heretofore hefty retirement funds. I only hope the "experts" that run TIAA, Vanguard, and a few other companies whose names must not be uttered were sharp enough to pick up on the same vibes as the smart women of the blogosphere.

Boston Gal's Open Wallet, a blog that obviously has at its helm a woman, linked to an article about three who have made it big as bloggers. These are the usual suspects and they pull in between $60,000/year and $120,000/year. These sums have enabled all three to leave their prior places of employ and blog full-time.

I wrote a comment wondering why the three biggies were all male. Could it be because they were all early adopters of technology? I also wondered if all three could continue their success, which was based on getting out of debt. They are now heading into discussions of investing, an area in which they are neophytes.


What say you Dear Readers? Do you detect some gender-savvy in the Talbots story? Do you see a gender issue in the story about the full-time personal finance blogger story?