From the New York Times Magazine: The Power of the Purse.
Remember the concept of “sisterhood”? That quaint relic of an idea that women owed it to other women to crash through ceilings and navigate a male world? It just might be taking new root in a most unexpected place – among women with money. There are more women controlling more wealth in the U.S. than ever before. (Of those in the wealthiest tier of the country – defined by the I.R.S. as individuals with assets of at least $1.5 million – 43 percent are women.) And unlike the women who preceded them – old-school patrons who gave to the museum and the symphony and their dead husbands’ alma maters – these givers are more likely to use their wealth deliberately and systematically to aid women in need.