The stereotype that Chinese women wear the trousers when it comes to domestic finances has been proved true by a recent survey.

The survey, carried out by Huakun Consumer Guidance Centre for the All-China Women's Federation, found that 77 per cent of married women are the decision makers when it comes to food, clothing and essential commodities.

More than 1,000 women aged 20 to 70 from eight cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Harbin were quizzed in the survey.

About 23 percent of the surveyed women said that they could make an independent decision when making a major purchase like buying a house, car or other valuables. 77 percent of women discussed big purchases with their husbands, but said their opinion was important.

Of the women, 46 percent said they could spend their earnings as they pleased. Half of the women said they pooled their incomes with their husbands' and spent together, but only 2 percent of women liked to give their money to their spouse.

"Every month, I am only responsible for the mortgage payment of our house, about 1,200 yuan (US$148)," said a 26-year-old woman from Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, who declined to give her name. She works in the marketing department of a company with a regular monthly salary of more than 5,000 yuan (US$617), plus bonuses. Her husband's salary is about 2,000 yuan (US$247) every month.

"My husband pays all the expenditures for our daily living, and I spend the rest of my earnings on clothes and accessories," she said.

Her words echo many others in the survey, in as much as women spend most on clothes, communications and traveling. Women aged from 31 to 40 are the biggest consumers.

(China Daily December 6, 2005)