TWENTY years down the line and it is going to be very much a woman's world in the UK, predicts a study out today.

By 2025 women will own 60% of our personal wealth, says the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Already between the ages of 18 and 44 and at 65 and over, women millionaires outnumber the men.

We should have seen it coming. For years now younger women have been out-performing the men in education and it is mainly that combination of better educational achievements (the result of hard work which no-one can begrudge) and living longer that seems to do the trick.

Figures taken in 2004 showed a rising number of women in employment (70% of those between 16 and 64, against 56% in 1971) with fewer men in jobs (80% in 2004 compared with 92% in 1971).

We might have to get used to women as the breadwinners. Perhaps more and more the hand that rocks the cradle will be male - and won't rule the world.

Hi-tech strain

ANOTHER report confirms what many office workers must already know - that the constant distraction of answering phones, e-mails and text messages while juggling with business as usual leaves us less sharp than normal.

Clinical trials in London found the effect was a greater loss of IQ than after smoking marijuana, the equivalent of losing a night's sleep.

It seems we are obsessed with technology and for a good many people interrupting a face-to-face meeting to answer messages is seen as, not rude as we might have expected, but a sign of efficiency.

Companies might find it in their interest to reduce the strain on their workers. The big question is how would they do it?

Planet parties

HAPPY Earth Day to you, happy Earth Day to you...

We haven't heard a lot about it this year but each April 22 more than half a billion people celebrate in an annual attempt to bring together the planet's population to "promote a healthy environment and a peaceful, just, sustainable world".

Earth Day has been celebrated since 1970 and its network reaches 12,000 organizations in 174 countries.

We hope it proves easier to sell than the EU.