Until Justice Just Is: Financial Empowerment
What is Financial Empowerment?
Financial empowerment is the ability and confidence for individuals and communities to make positive financial decisions that promote their long-term financial stability and financial wellbeing.
Over the course of American history, women have advocated for equitable pay and the ability to make independent decisions concerning their finances. In addition, women, and particularly BIPOC (black, indigenous, and other people of color) women have experienced a variety of forms of financial control. This control includes the struggle for women’s financial independence, which has been a long fight. Too often, women’s labor is undervalued both in the workplace and at home. Women-owned businesses also face significant barriers to success, particularly accessing the critical funds needed to scale up, particularly for BIPOC women pursuing funding from banks or other traditional means. In addition, financial abuse significantly impacts women’s financial empowerment and financial literacy plays a huge role in the preservation of women’s ability to make their own financial decisions.
Throughout history, some women have been denied control over their financial lives. In fact, women weren’t allowed to have credit cards in their own name until 1974. Today, more women are taking control of their finances and making important decisions about budgeting, saving, and investing. Despite this progress, inequities persist that hold women back from reaching their full economic potential. Across time and cultures, women have had vastly different degrees of economic freedom, and many economic advancements have been made at the expense of BIPOC and low-income women.
The movement to close the pay gap and ensure all people are paid for their labor is ongoing, with the gender pay gap not changing much in the last two decades. Many BIPOC women seek to become entrepreneurs as an avenue to more financial freedom and empowerment, and often encounter barriers to success, particularly in securing and accessing critical funding needed to start and scale businesses. Women are also more likely to be victims of financial abuse than men. Historically, because men were seen as financial heads of households, women were taught to leave financial decisions and literacy to men. This left women unequipped to care for their own financial wellbeing. Financial abuse involves restricting access to resources, controlling finances, and exploiting economic dependence so that one partner can maintain power and control over another. Without access to funds, survivors are often left with no choice but to stay with their abuser. If you are experiencing domestic/intimate partner violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or text START to 88788.
Financial Empowerment Challenge
Every week during the Until Justice Just Is Campaign, we will encourage you to reflect on the week's theme and take some action. These challenges are meant to help you reflect and deepen your anti-racism practices.
This Week's Challenge:
Step 1: Think about an instance or instances in your life where you’ve been unpaid for your labor. This could be in your career, internships, education, in your community, or even within your family life. Once you’ve reflected, ask yourself these questions:
How did it feel to work without being compensated?
What support or resources would have helped you or your family?
What local, state, or federal level policies could help address this problem?
Step 2: Learn about and shop at businesses owned and operated by BIPOC women. Check out these guides for minority owned businesses in Georgia to get started:
Step 3: On Friday, after evaluating your own self-reflections share your learning on social media or through in-person conversations with friends or colleagues. If you post on social media, be sure to use our #UntilJusticeJustIs hashtag and tag YWCA Greater Atlanta on Instagram at @ywcaatlanta and X at @ywcaatl.
Financial Empowerment and Race
Structural inequalities can perpetuate economic injustices and make maintaining financial empowerment more challenging. Addressing the issues that arise at the intersection of financial empowerment and race requires not only acknowledgment of historical and present injustices but also organizing and advocating for policies that promote dignity, personal agency, and economic empowerment and autonomy.
Financial Empowerment and State Policy
Here in Georgia, legislators, advocates, and allies are actively working for state policy that would empower women financially and improve economic conditions for families. In the 2024 legislative session, YWCA Greater Atlanta, alongside the Georgia Coalition for Paid Leave, was excited that House Bill 1010 passed, which doubles the number of weeks of paid leave for Georgian public sector workers, including teachers, from 3 weeks to 6 weeks! This is a great step towards policies that ensure paid leave for all Georgians, but we won’t stop until all Georgians have access to paid leave policies!
What can you do?
Join the fight for paid leave in Georgia- learn more about the Georgia Coalition for Paid Leave!
Deeper Dive into Financial Empowerment
Read more about how How Racism and Sexism Lead Black Women to Entrepreneurship.
It’s important that caregivers are recognized within the workplace. In addition, you can read about Supporting Caregivers in the Workplace: Recognizing the Racial Caregiver Gap.
Here’s a video that informs you about Care Work and the Racial Wealth Gap.
Advocate for worker protections in Georgia- learn more about the Respect Georgia Workers’ Alliance!
*some information in this e-mail is from YWCA USA and can be found at: https://justice.ywca.org/
Reviewing Economic Empowerment
This week we learned more about the intersections of gender, race, and economic issues. We have seen how throughout American history, some women have faced significant barriers to establishing their own financial security and stability. Although more women are taking control of their finances and gaining essential financial literacy skills, economic inequities still exist that must be addressed before women are fully financially empowered. Racial, gender, and motherhood pay gaps continue to hold women back from reaching their full economic potential. Women are also still expected to do a significant amount of unpaid labor such as childcare, caring for older relatives, and maintaining the home. According to a new study from Payscale, the gender pay gap can mean $900,000 in lost wages over a woman’s lifetime. This loss of financial power has huge implications for women’s long-term quality of life.
Until Justice Just Is, we will continue to advocate for financial empowerment for women as a critical step towards gender equity.
Download this fact sheet to read and share with friends and colleagues who would like to learn more!
This Week's Challenge: Putting it into Practice
For this week’s challenge, you were invited to remember experiences where you have been unpaid for your labor. These experiences could be noted throughout your career, for unpaid internships, as part of educational experiences, within your community, or as part of your family life. If you have not done so already, share these reflections with friends, colleagues, or classmates or on your social media. We also challenged you to find and support black, indigenous, and other women of color (BIPOC) women-owned businesses. Invite a friend to join you in supporting a BIPOC woman-owned business and highlight it on your social media!
If you post on social media, be sure to use our hashtag #UntilJusticeJustIs and tag YWCA Greater Atlanta on Instagram at @ywcaatlanta and X at @ywcaatl!
Here are a few examples to help you get started:
X: This week @ywcaatl invited me to reflect on my work experiences for #UntilJusticeJustIs. I realized I didn’t make above minimum wage until I was 30 years old, with multiple jobs being unpaid! Women, and BIPOC women especially, deserve to be paid for their labor!
Instagram: #UntilJusticeJustIs, and BIPOC women have an equitable share of the market, it’s important to support BIPOC and women-owned businesses! @ywcaatlanta encouraged me to check out (tag the business) and now I’ve got a new favorite coffee shop!