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Women want their men to build walls not websites!


December 2007

Despite their obsession with online shopping, social networking sites and dotcom millionaires, British women prefer a man who can build a wall over a man that can build a website. Findings released today by Budget Van Insurance reveal that more than two thirds of women – 67% - prefer a DIY hunk over an internet geek.

In fact men be warned – half of all women find a man who is useless at DIY or any jobs traditionally thought of as being manly, a turn off. Rather, it seems they prefer a man who’s not afraid to get his hands dirty or knock up a shelf.

Interestingly, when looking at what men prefer, a massive 90% said they favour a woman who can cook up a feast in the kitchen rather than drink them under the table. So for the young women binge drinking on vodka and beer, they may be damaging their livers in vain. Men want their women in the kitchen not propping up the bar!

Regardless of society’s fixation with gender equality, 61% of women believe the perfect man should be handy around the house and good at DIY. But it’s not just women conforming to age-old stereotypes.  More than half of men – 56% - think the perfect woman should be able to cook and more than a third – 31% - find women who are useless in the kitchen a turn off.

Lisa Corston, spokesperson for Budget Van Insurance said:
“Despite the popularity of male celebrity chefs such as Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver and female property developers like Sarah Beeny, it seems that the stereotypical image of a man being handy round the house and a woman being skilled in the kitchen still exists. Women want a man to be able to cope if the sink gets blocked or the plug needs changing. And men like the idea of a woman who can cook up a storm in the kitchen!

Donna Dawson, a psychologist specialising in Personality and Behaviour said:
“The research findings see a return to old fashioned ways of thinking when the men typically went out to work and left the women to care for the home and children. Since the 1970s women have fought hard for equal opportunities to men but deep down it seems that the values installed in us by our parents and grandparents still apply.”


Key findings
For further information please contact:
Roland Cross/Nicola Pierce
Broadgate                                                                               020 7726 6111

Note to editors

The BGL Group

The BGL Group, formerly known as Budget Group of Companies (the Group) was founded in 1992 and has grown to become one of the UK’s largest personal lines insurance intermediaries, through a combination of organic growth and a series of major strategic acquisitions (the last major acquisition was five years ago).

The Group now arranges and administers insurance for 2 million customers. It operates major contact centre operations (Fusion) in Peterborough, Coventry, Sunderland, Peterlee in the UK, and Cape Town, South Africa. The Group currently employs 2,255 people with its head office in Peterborough.

As an intermediary, the Group is able to access a wide range of underwriters, making it highly competitive in the marketplace, offering core products such as motor, home, commercial vehicle and motorcycle insurance.  The Group also offers a wide range of supplementary products, which include breakdown cover, legal protection, travel insurance, life assurance, pet insurance and mortgage payment protection insurance.

 In 2006 the Group received ‘Intermediary of the Year’ (Insurance Age UK Broker Awards) for its outstanding contribution to the insurance industry.  In April 2007, the Sunday Times’ PricewaterhouseCoopers Profit Track 100 rankings selected the Group as ‘one to watch’. And in October 2007 the Group was ranked 229th in the Sunday Times HSBC Top Track 250 of Britain’s 250 biggest mid-market private companies by latest sales.

Budget Van insurance searches a panel of 12 insurers to offer competitively priced van insurance, in addition to exceptional product benefits. In 2006 Budget Van launched various innovative marketing campaigns including ‘it’s a van man thing’ and ‘flying traffic wardens’, which resulted in it being awarded ‘Marketing Campaign of The Year 2006’ (Insurance Times Awards). More recently Budget Van and News of the World have joined forces to produce the Dream Dates Calendar 2007.

BISL Ltd, part of the BGL Group is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

Registered Address: Pegasus House, Bakewell Road, Orton Southgate, PE2 6YS.
Registered in England no 3231094