What’s It With Women And Bankruptcy?
By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer
Remember that song “To everything, turn turn, turn, there is a season…” (Forrest Gump) one of my all-time favorites and well, it seems a lot like one of those ‘life’s philosophies — simple yet absolutely true’. Don’t worry we’re not turning into a music blog — just wanted to bring in that bit of philosophy that there is a time and place for everything.
So if you are up to your eyeballs in debt and have tried every possible trick in the book to get out of it, what do you do? Declare bankruptcy of course, you’d say — that is if you are not a woman. What’s it with women and debt. You have absolutely no problem getting into debt but have a huge problem admitting that you have a problem?
And no, I’m not the one saying that. According to Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), a leading debt advice charity in the UK, thousands of women who are heavily in debt are refusing to file for bankruptcy even when it is their best option. Why? Because they don’t want the perceived stigma!
According to the charity, more than two thirds of people who chose bankruptcy are men while bankrupt women cling on to their false hopes. It is good idea to want to pay back your loans but it doesn’t help if you are going to kill yourself doing it. So I guess this is one area where the men seem to have got it spot on.