In our culture it’s okay to talk about therapy we’ve gone through, marital problems we’ve had, our deepest intimate secrets - but telling the truth about money, confessing our worries to your children, our parents, our friends, just isn’t done. Money is our secret both in private and in public. Imagine going to a dinner party and telling a group of close acquaintances, "I just don’t know what to do. My credit card debt has gone up to $17,000, and I don’t know how I’ll ever get out of it." The room would fall into embarrassed silence. (Most silent of all would be the others in the room weighed down by the secret of their own credit card debt.)

Women are winning the numbers game in the workforce. They now fill almost half of the country’s managerial jobs. In 1999, about 60% of females, 16 years of age or older, worked outside the home, up from 20% at the turn of the century.