Alex, I think the dynamics here are so complicated that we do not fully understand them. Is the preference for a male child a cultural thing, or an inbuilt byproduct of evolution? I cannot say, but a strong argument can be made for the latter because of the way this preference seems to transcend cultural boundaries.

As for that stat about women earning higher returns on their investments, my guess is that it is more about being patient than being smarter. If you track investments made for the same purposes I would predict that the difference would level off. In other words, I think women tend to invest long term, and these types of investments usually have a higher yield than short term because there is less risk involved. Safer investment strategy results in a higher average yield. Do women who make short term investments have a correspondingly higher rate of return then men with the same investment strategy? That would indicate a gender based difference that would be worthy of comment.

This said, I do believe that women are underused in the business world, and that in a few years we should see women outnumbering men in the corporate environment. I foresee this because it only makes sense that women be represented proportionately to their population, and women outnumber men. Plus, women in general are better at dealing with stress because they are more inclined to talk about what they feel than men, who generally prefer to deal with stress in ways that negatively impact their health.