The Mystique of Feminine Buying Power

After observing the crowds at the post-holiday sales, and doing a bit of scouring myself, I thought back to the fact I recently read in a Mintel report:

“Women represent 51% of the population but buy 80% of all products/services.”

The fact itself is certainly not all that shocking. All of the marketers and advertisers have certainly figured it out, and we see it reflected in commercials and malls all the time. The WHY behind this could be interesting. The reasons this statistic must be so are a mixture of ‘surface’ and ‘substance,’ as I see it. The surface reason is that women are - intentionally or unintentionally - often delegated the task of household management, and the majority of purchases (even in “men’s categories”) ultimately fall into the framework of keeping the household together and running smoothly. But I wonder if the reason of substance has something to do with psychological mindset.

This statistic actually contradicts the pop-psych principle that “men like to fix things” (i.e. just buy something to take care of it as quickly as possible), whereas “women like to maximize their solution” (i.e. not just “buy something,” but utilize all resources available to create the best possible solution, or buying the "best something.")

But perhaps, women are simply more likely to use shopping as therapy – and not just in the sense of buying some new shoes after a bad day at work – but as a salve to that urge to make things better. Even purchasing a service like an oil change is a disguised check for the to-do list of an accomplished modern-woman multi-tasker. What do you think? I feel a bit like Larry Summers toeing the waters here, so I would invite other perspectives. Are women more likely than men to rely on money to “smooth the edges of things” and create self-worth and comfort? Or should I gather my things and resign my post at a top university? :)