The F Word

It not what you’re thinking. It’s not even ‘feminism’. The F word I’d like to focus on in this section is ‘fair’.

?Because life, particularly for women, can be very unfair.

As women we are socialized to believe that we are bad with money, that it’s unfeminine to talk about money. We are often portrayed as shopaholics and commonly seen deferring to our fathers, brothers and then husbands when it comes to making money decisions.

Across the world, women trail behind men in financial literacy scores. And since financial literacy is the bedrock of financial empowerment, women tend to be less financially empowered than men.

Which is a crying shame, particularly because we need it more.

Women typically earn around 80 cents to the dollar (it’s even less for racial minorities and women of colour).

And that gender inequality starts at a young age. There are several studies which show that boys receive more pocket money than girls.

More studies show that parents tend to talk more to their sons than their daughters about money and investing.

Fair isn’t really a word that springs to mind here.

And as if the income gap wasn’t bad enough, this consequentially also causes women to be on the disadvantageous end of the investing gap as well.

We get used to the narrative that investing ‘is not for us’, ‘we don’t really know enough about it’ and that we’d rather just ‘leave it to the men’.

These well-worn narratives about women and money don’t serve us, our families or society. And it’s time we take definitive steps to obliterate them.

It’s only fair, not just because of the reasons detailed below.

As mentioned earlier, women earn less than men. So we need to be smarter with our money.

To compound this we spend less time in the active workforce due to pregnancy and childcare. And so women are less likely to be covered by pensions or receive workplace benefits.

To exacerbate the issue even further, we also tend to live around 5 -7 years longer than men.

So not only do we earn less, we do it over a shorter period of time and then have to make it last longer while having less of a safety net to fall back on.

How can this be fair?

It’s not.

It’s unfair, unkind and disingenuous.

It’s time to use the F word more. It’s time to talk about fairness in the workplace. It’s time to talk about fairness at home. And it’s time to talk about fairness in society.

Tipping the scales in favor of one sex isn’t playing fair. Just because it’s been done for ages doesn’t make it right, or acceptable.

?The system isn’t broken, it was built this way, probably not as a diabolical plan against women (well maybe, but let’s give them the benefit of doubt here) but because they didn’t think about it too much at that time, or know better.

?But we do know better now.

?We know how harmful it is for women to be financially disempowered. It affects every aspect of their life, not to mention their mental health and confidence. One of the main reasons women stay in abusive relationships is because they lack the financial means to be self-reliant if they leave.

?Conversely being truly financially empowered does wonders for women. It builds their self-confidence and helps them make smarter decisions, not just with regard to money but with regard to other aspects of their lives as well.

So let’s commit to using the F word more often.

?Let’s ensure that our daughters get fair treatment at home and in the workplace.

?Let’s ensure that they are given a fair chance to compete on a level playing field.

?Let’s ensure that they are financially empowered and can start their wealth building activity on a fair footing.

?It’s only fair.