Can you believe the first wave of feminism was over 150 years ago, how far we have come but how far we still need to go !
Thankfully those early courageous women started the fight for women’s equality which not only ultimately resulted in us winning the right to vote many decades later but also spurred us on to rebalancing the unfairly skewed scales in many other areas.
The current wave is all about the rise of the financial feminist, those who are focused on creating a financially equitable playing field for all women.
Although feminism has had to fight many hurdles to force change, it’s undeniable the positive results those changes have had on the world.
And it’s equally evident the more of us fighting for change the more compelling and unstoppable it becomes.
So what does being part of the financial feminist tribe mean.
Understanding women’s history of money
In the last few years women have taken giant leaps in becoming financially literate and financially independent, however we cannot get complacent.
We need to keep this evolution alive by ensuring we keep building our financial knowledge and educating those who don’t freely have access to doing so themselves and of course not forgetting the younger generation of future financial feminists,
Talking about money
The old taboo around money was where the secrets and inequalities thrived.
By opening up the money conversation with friends, family, partners, parents, colleagues and the like we can start to make money less of a dark art and more an open, transparent and equitable tool.
Push for changes at work
This has been one of the most difficult areas for me to address.
I see changes that clearly need to happen, inequality is clearly still very prevalent, sexism and female ageism are rife and double standards still exist but the power imbalance means putting your voice out there can be a very scary move to make.
However financial feminists are brave and they know every change we fight for is not just for ourselves but for all marginalised groups and that’s a bigger motivator than fear!
Support other women
Financial feminists don’t hesitate to put their money and their talents where their mouth is and support other women.
They shop women owned brands, they invest in women led and women founded companies and they volunteer their skills and talents to support women less fortunate either through mentoring, coaching or advising on financial literacy, entrepreneurship, careers or on general education and skills building.
Financial Feminism is a game changer for the world, as the team at Ellevest so eloquently puts it; “When we invest in ourselves and in each other, when we work to make women stronger financially, when we advocate for each other with our voices and with our dollars, when we model equality and financial strength for our kids, when we blast through the taboo’s to talk about money – if we do it together – then everyone wins”
