On Warren Buffett and Women

Janet Tavakoli's new book Dear Mr. Buffett: What An Investor Learns 1,269 Miles from Wall Street is due out January 9. In September, I wrote:

Last week, we noted that a new book on Warren Buffett was due out, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life.

In our post we noted that Buffett gave unique access to the author, Alice Schroeder, and seemed to give preference to women over men when it came to interviews and the like.

Now word is out that another Buffett biography is due out in January 2009. Same modus operandi, Buffett co-operating with a woman. This time Janet Tavakoli.

Tavakoli emailed me this morning saying that if Buffett gave her preferential treatment it wasn't because of her gender. Now although I still do believe Buffett favors women in these type situations, I do want to make one thing clear. I am not saying that because Buffett chooses to deal with women in these situations that these women are somehow less competent than men. In fact, I have just started reading Snowball, and not only is the author, Alice Schroeder, a talented writer, I marvel at her ability to get Buffett to open up about himself. Forget waterboarding. Schroeder knows how to get it done.

As for Tavakoli, this is quite an impressive resume.