Gulf Women's $40 Billion in Wealth - News or Marketing Campaign?

The local (GCC) press is abuzz with the story that women in the Gulf control US$40 billion in wealth.  Here and here.

And elsewhere, but you can Google that yourself.

However, since this was first reported in 2007, I guess we can draw the conclusion that the original 2007 article's statement that they have a conservative investment strategy of holding money market assets has been proven correct.  If they had invested in the market, they'd hold considerably less today.

Interesting how these news articles seem to be less about women's wealth than about the capacity of an investment firm to help them with it.