5 Ways to Be a Financial Feminist in 2021

Hello and welcome to the STOCKED: Pantry with Purpose podcast. Now that we have mostly recovered from the attack on our capital and have ushered in a new administration, let’s turn towards our own ecosystems a bit.

Today I’ll be reading excerpts from 5 Ways to Be a Financial Feminist in 2021 from Ellevest Magazine. In it, you will hear me reference multiple links and so when you come to this post on my Substack, you’ll be able to click on these links to learn more about a given topic. Full disclosure: Ellevest an affiliate “partner” of STOCKED.

1. Talk about money

It’s time to normalize talking about money. With our friends, and our partners, and our parents.

When you talk about money, you start to know what’s possible and where you stand. While talking about money won’t erase wealth gaps, it’s very true that taboos about talking about money reinforce privilege and can keep us from talking about those wealth gaps. And we need to talk about them. Women on average own only 32 cents for every dollar a man owns. On average, Latinx and Black women own just one penny.

If you’re in a relationship — no matter how great the relationship — you should know that financial infidelity is a very real thing. And that divorce affects women’s finances more than men’s, but having greater clarity about family finances can help lessen the blow. The way to take care of yourself is to talk. And it’s also a way to take care of your relationship: Couples who talk about money regularly report being happier than couples who don’t.

2. Raise financial feminists

Whether you’re a mom, aunt, older cousin, or role model, you can use our advice on raising kids to be financial feminists so that they’ll have more equal opportunities- and the power to give others opportunities, too.

3. Speak up for change at work

For most of us, our money begins at work. So the more we can make things better for women in our workplaces, the better off we’ll all be. If you’re in a position to speak up in your workplace, read our advice on how to stand up for paid family leave at your office, how to advocate for equality, and how to help your company close its own gender pay gap. Ask specifically about what your leadership is doing to advance racial justice and address unconscious bias in the workplace.

While you’re at it: speak up for yourself. Advocating to be paid what you’re worth is a feminist act. Here’s our advice on negotiation, managing imposter syndrome, and getting ready for your performance review.

4. Spend money on women+

Where we spend our dollars makes a difference-even before the pandemic. And with women, we’re starting tons of businesses but receiving only a fraction of the funding. In 2020, those businesses were hit hard, since women own disproportionately more businesses that depend on foot traffic, had less money to begin with, and got passed over for those very important emergency PPP loans.

So shop women+. We asked our community of Elle Raisers for their recommendations, and they came through with hundreds of their favorite businesses owned by Black women+, Latinx women+, and Native American women+.

5. Invest to change the world for women+

Here’s the thing: every dollar you spend, save, or invest has an impact, even if you don’t know what that impact is. Which is why we’re big fans of intentional investing. Part of that means knowing why you’re investing, and part of it means choosing an investing company who aligns with your values. But it also means paying attention to what we’re investing in.

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 taboos to talk about money — if we do it together — then everyone wins.

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Thanks for listening and, as always, reach out to me on Substack with all your food and finance questions. The full transcript is available here in the show notes.

As a reminder, I’ll be tallying up the various savings strategies I have shared with you this month so you can see how I got to my target savings and first Ellevest investment for 2021. Until then, chew on some advice from my little sister, “It’s only savings if you hold on to it.”