The significance of the report lies in the fact that BCG projects that the amount of wealth controlled by women will grow at an average annual rate of 8 per cent from year-end 2009 through 2014, slightly above the 7 per cent rate seen from year-end 2004 through 2009. Emerging markets are expected to lead the growth for several years.

The findings - released today in a white paper entitled Leveling the Playing Field: Upgrading the Wealth Management Experience for Women - are based on a survey of 500 women as well as more than 70 interviews with private-banking specialists and wealthy women around the world.

According to the survey, conducted in early 2010, 55 per cent of respondents said that wealth managers could do a better job of meeting the advisory needs of women; 24 per cent said that private banks could significantly improve how they serve women.

"The dissatisfaction stems from the unshakable perception that men get more attention, better advice, and sometimes even better terms and deals," said Peter Damisch, a BCG partner and a coauthor of the study. "We heard this sense of subordination time and again in our interviews."

Women account for large chunks of wealth holdings, albeit in varying degrees depending on geographic location. The study said that women controlled an estimated 27 percent, or about $20 trillion, of the world's wealth in 2009. The percentages were highest in North America , Australia and New Zealand , and Asia , and much lower in Latin America , Japan , and Africa .

The data underscores how important it is for wealth managers to improve services to women, given the share of wealth they hold in certain regions of the world.

In Europe, the percentage of women’s share of wealth was higher in Western Europe than in Russia and Eastern Europe .

“While the share of wealth controlled by women has changed only gradually over time, the amount of women-controlled wealth has been on a rollercoaster ride since the start of the financial crisis, mirroring the overall movement in global assets under management,” the report said.

After falling sharply in 2008, it soared by 16 per cent in 2009, to $20.2 trillion. It grew by nearly 30 per cent in Asia and by 24 per cent in Australia and New Zealand. In other regions, it increased by anywhere from 13 to 18 per cent, except in Japan, where it grew by only 2 per cent.

"These generalizations should not be taken as holy writ," cautioned Anna Zakrzewski, a BCG principal and a co-author of the study, "but they do shed some light on why so many private banks - despite targeting other groups of clients, such as doctors or lawyers - still have a service gap between male and female clients.”

"For example, many women feel that their advisors focus too much on short-term results and disregard their long-term goals, which often revolve around major milestones in a woman's life, such as the birth of a child. This is in part a function of incentive systems and company cultures that are focused on near-term performance, but it is also a shortcut and a symptom of superficial advisor-client relationships,” she said.