The Laundry List

I've decided that I want to go beyond the Internet with my quest to learn more about investing. My first post-Web stop was the local (Reston) library, where I picked up these gems:

1. Charles Schwab's New Guide to Financial Independence, by Charles R. Schwab;
2. Straight Talk on Investing, by Jack Brennan;
3. The Smart Investor's Survival Guide, by Charles B. Carlson;
4. This Is Not Your Parents' Retirement, by Partick P. Astre; and
5. Personal Finance Planning, by V. Victor Hallman and Jerry Rosenbloom

Here are some things that struck me while picking out these books, and maybe this says something about the state of finances in our county: hardly any of the authors for the books I was interested in (investments and retirement planning) were written by women. There were many books out there by women, but they fell into a few categories: "You're newly single!" or "Girl, get out of debt!" or even, and I say this will all honesty, "Picking the right money man." What?

I get the impression that money is and has been, for a variety of reasons, that finance has resided within the den of men for most of modern history. Of course there are exceptions, certainly I was drawn to following Suze Orman's CNBC finance show, and I also read her books. That's a start. But where are the rest of the women? Why are books on money for women focusing on debt management mostly, and those for men generally about "getting rich"? Is it true that men are just more monetarily inclined? This is something that I'll definitely be thinking about as I attempt to absorb this data. And there's a lot of it (Personal Financial Planning itself has 626 pages). I've gotta go read now...