In the days when wages were paid weekly in cash, my father handed his pay to my mother on Friday evenings. It was the norm in our northern English industrial town. Women had greater credibility as custodians of family resources. They were deemed less likely to spend the money impulsively on non-essentials because they would put the family’s most important needs first; ahead of playing dominoes in the pub, say.
The notion that women typically do act and think in different ways from men is contentious (you will have to take my word for it that they play less dominoes). Generalisations about the sexes are dangerous, and often a cover for sexism. But there are differences and they do clearly manifest themselves in the absence of women from many areas of economics and finance – and from the leadership of central banks.
So there are good reasons for seeing the nomination of Janet Yellen to lead the US Federal Reserve as an important milestone that goes beyond the inherent merit of a society marked by equality, in the sense of ensuring that we do not discriminate between people on the basis of irrelevant characteristics.