Despite the popular theory of "Mars and Venus," men and women recently surveyed demonstrate remarkably broad agreement on issues central to women's lives in American society.

Seventy-two percent of women recently surveyed say the United States has not gone far enough with respect to men and women receiving equal wages. A majority of men (59%) agree, although about one-third (32%) are satisfied with women's progress on this issue.

Fifty-seven percent of women polled say they have benefited personally from the women's movement -- and almost one-third (31%) of surveyed men say they have benefited, as well.

In addition, clear majorities of both men (58%) and women (66%) believe American society must go even further in establishing equal rights for women.

These are among the major findings of the fifth edition of The Shell Poll(SM), an opinion survey conducted for Shell Oil Company by Peter D. Hart Research Associates.  Men and women were polled on a wide range of gender- related issues, including the workplace, personal finance, sports, politics, the Internet, household roles and various businesses' treatment of both sexes.

"The Shell Poll findings seem to indicate that men and women agree on quite a few substantial issues that have an impact on the lives of American females," said Susan Borches, vice president of Corporate Affairs for Shell Oil Company.  "For example, a majority of Americans surveyed say that more work needs to be done on equal wages and equal funding for school athletic programs.  Our goal for this survey has always been to encourage Americans to talk about the issues and values that are important to them in their daily lives.  This edition provides many opportunities for discussion."

Women in the workplace

"You can have it all" is a familiar phrase to women coming of age in the late 20th century.  However, the difficulties of balancing work and home life, in reality, present a much more complicated picture.  In fact, this challenge is recognized as one of the more pressing problems facing young women.  One- third (34%) of women surveyed consider the time pressures of trying to meet both family and work responsibilities one of the most serious problems young women face, surpassed only by domestic violence.

Americans are conflicted about mothers' roles in the working world.  By a close margin, women say it's fine for a mother with young children to work if she can handle the obligations to her family and to her job (51%).  Forty- three percent of women polled say a mother who can afford to should stay at home with her children.  Men's perceptions echo women's.

However, women show some concern over the possible stress they face in blending work outside the home with family life.  Two-thirds (65%) of surveyed women believe mothers working outside the home face more stress than do stay- at-home mothers (15%).  Men agree even more, with 72 percent saying mothers who work outside the home face more stress than mothers who stay at home (16%).

Investing in their futures

Personal finance was once the hallowed domain of men -- but no longer, survey findings indicate.  Women now make a wide range of financial decisions, either on their own or on an equal basis with a partner.

For example, a large majority of women in couples (80%) report they share or take sole responsibility for making finance and investment decisions; 63 percent of men agree that women either take on or share in these roles.

And they don't approach these responsibilities with reservations, either; indeed, women take great confidence in these financial decisions.  Most women surveyed report they are very or fairly confident in making a will (73%), setting a budget and sticking to it (70%), purchasing or leasing a car (70%), buying a home (67%) or establishing a 401(k) or similar retirement account (65%).

Furthermore, women display confidence in charting their course for the sometimes-turbulent stock market.  More than twice as many women now say they are personally interested in the day-to-day developments of the financial markets (45%) than in 1971 (21%, Lou Harris for Virginia Slims' survey).  More than a third (38%) of women report feeling confident in purchasing stocks or mutual funds, compared with 52 percent of men.

A source of monetary concern, however, registers in the disparity between savings levels of white women and minority women.  According to The Shell Poll findings, African-American (41%) and Hispanic (38%) women are significantly less likely to have retirement accounts than are white women (59%).  Similar differences are apparent when it comes to women having significant savings ($5,000 or more) outside of a retirement account.

Businesses' treatment of women not always deemed equal

Women walk into businesses just as frequently as men -- but men and women don't necessarily believe both sexes receive equal treatment.

Surveyed women report that HMOs (71%), airlines (70%) and department stores (85%) treat women as well or even better than they do men.  In each case, no more than one in seven thinks these industries treat women poorly.

However, a large minority indicates room for improvement in some industries: at least one-fifth of women perceive discriminatory treatment from hotels (21%), real-estate companies (33%), and banks and insurance companies (36%).

Close to half of women (46%) believe investment advisors treat women worse than they treat men (39% of men agree).  This pales in comparison, though, with the negative judgment women give car dealers:  an overwhelming 77 percent of women surveyed in The Shell Poll say auto dealers treat women worse than they treat men.  Men agree, with 68 percent of them saying women receive worse treatment.

Interestingly, a majority of men polled (51%) say women are treated better than men in only one of eight types of businesses:  clothing/department stores.

All's fair in love and gender wars

An enduring image of 1950s America has husband and wife assigned very definite roles within the household. Perhaps surprisingly 50 years after that decade, men and women agree that in many cases they still take on some of these defined roles.

Women who are part of a couple claim to do all or most of the cooking, cleaning and grocery shopping.  For example, a majority (58%) of women say they do all or most of the household chores, including cleaning and laundry. Men seem a bit reluctant to give their partners the credit, though:  nearly the same proportion (61%) of men say those are shared responsibilities or predominantly something they do.

Men claim to be doing all or most of the driving (60%) and home maintenance or car repairs (67%), and women tend to acknowledge -- though not to the degree men do -- those areas in which the man of the household bears the burden.  About half (49%) of women say the man of the house does the driving and 57 percent say he takes care of most or all home maintenance or car repairs.

A Woman in the First Office?

When given a list of five prominent groundbreaking possibilities for women, women say they would most like to see a woman as president of the United States (49%).  Men's responses (46%) also reflect this.

As Election Day approaches, men and women also express similar views on issues that would make them more likely to vote for a particular candidate.  A clear consensus exists among men and women on several issues: increasing funding for schools to hire more teachers (81% of women and 72% of men would be more likely to support a candidate who took that position), lowering taxes for average families (80% of women, 79% of men), strengthening laws against deadbeat dads (80% of women, 76% of men), and expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act (68% of women, 56% of men).

A gender gap opens, however, on two issues.  Two-thirds (67%) of women would be more likely to vote for someone who favors laws designed to limit sex and violence in movies, TV and videogames, while just 44 percent of men agree. And 56 percent of women would be more likely to vote for a candidate who favors stronger restrictions on gun ownership, compared to 42 percent of men.

Other poll findings include:

* Men (60%) and women (58%) surveyed agree that society has gone too far

in the time young children are spending with babysitters or in child  care.

* Fifty-eight percent of surveyed women between ages 50 and 64 report

having access to the Internet from home or work.  Almost one-third (32%)

of these women say they spend four or more hours a week surfing the Web.

* Generally, the more a woman earns for a living, the more likely she is

to be satisfied with her choices in life.  Forty-five percent of polled

women age 18 to 64 who earn less than $30,000 a year say women have more

choices today because they can enter fields previously open only to men

-- while 61 percent of women age 18 to 64 making $30,000 to $50,000

agree.

* Both men and women polled (52% men, 59% women) say society has not gone

far enough in ensuring that school athletic programs for girls receive

as much funding as programs for boys.

Shell sponsors The Shell Poll as a way to foster dialogue among Americans about substantive issues, values and lifestyles.  The poll is an extension of the company's "Count on Shell(SM)" campaign to provide reliable and accurate information to consumers.

The Shell Poll is conducted by the Washington D.C.-based survey research firm Peter D. Hart Research Associates.  Telephone interviews were conducted January 7 to 13, 2000, by trained interviewers with a representative national sample of 1,040 randomly selected females and 413 randomly selected males. Question results for the public sample have a margin of error of +/-3.1 percent for women and +/-4.9 percent for men.

For more information or to see the full results of this poll, please call Kitty Borah or Stacy Hutchinson at Shell's media line:  713-241-4544, e-mail klborah@shellus.com or slhutchinson@shellus.com or visit Shell's website http://www.countonshell.com/shell-poll.html .