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5 Promises to Support #FinancialFeminism

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Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

I recently bought a cap for the first time in my life and feel weirdly seen.

Source: Ellevest

I know I rarely espouse the message of Feminism and my views on gender equality are a true mystery. Ha-ha. Well, out in the real world, I’m just as outspoken and direct about these thoughts. As a real-life human woman, I hold these truths to be self-evident:

  • We are equal regardless of gender.
  • We all deserve equal representation, opportunity, and access.
  • Gender does not render anyone more or less of a fully capable, functional, and reasonable human being.

But while gender doesn’t inherently prevent us from leading fully realized lives, the obstacles we’ve built up around gender certainly do. The truth is that we can never achieve gender equality without the finances to support access and autonomy. That’s where #FinancialFeminism comes in.

Financial Feminism | noun

[fi-nan-shuh l femuh-niz-uh m]

The belief in financial equality regardless of gender.

While cards may have been stacked against women in the past, we truly have the opportunity to bring each other up and rebalance the distribution of power. Of spending. Of wealth. Women control more than 60% of all personal wealth in the US and we don’t need The Power in order to start our own economic revolution.

Here are the stats:

  • Women control over $20 trillion in worldwide spending ($5-15 trillion annually in the US alone)
  • Women purchase more than 50% of traditionally male products, including cars, electronics, and home improvement products
  • Roughly 40% of US working women out-earn their spouses
Stats provided by Girl Power Marketing

So, in hopes of seeing true equality in access, representation, and ownership during my lifetime, here are the 5 promises I’m making to myself and women everywhere.

I Promise to be Transparent

When I first started my path towards financial independence, I thought the journey would largely be solitary. I was under the impression that personal finances were a secret, taboo subject and nobody would want to talk openly about money.

Fuck all that. If democracy dies in darkness, inequality thrives in secrecy. It’s important that we share knowledge and realities with one another, whether that means illuminating our own advantages or understanding our disadvantages.

I promise to be honest and share my financial journey, including FI/RE, investing, budgeting, and even how much I’m paid and for what. And I promise not to be ashamed or bashful about it, either.

If you didn’t know this, it is illegal for a company to punish or prevent you from discussing salary with coworkers. Any company worth working for has a compensation structure based on experience, tenure, skill level… but not gender. The only way to understand the company’s comp structure is to talk about it – whether with HR or with your peers. I promise to be honest about my earnings or earning potential, and same for the people around me.

This goes for work opportunities, as well. I promise to be honest about how women are treated in any company I have first-hand knowledge of, and I encourage everyone to do the same. There are plenty of anonymous apps that make it easy to share personal experiences such as Glassdoor, Comparably, and Blind – but FairyGodBoss was specifically built for women to share their experiences. If you want to hear what it’s like to be a woman working at your next company, I encourage you to check it out.

Related Post: 13 #MeToo Moments in My Career So Far

I Promise to be Supportive

I promise not to scoff, belittle, undermine, or stand in the way of another woman’s goals. I promise to listen actively and with an open mind. I promise to look for genuine ways to help promote the women around me, their businesses, and their financial health. I promise to offer my skills or knowledge whenever appropriate, and never to offer judgment.

I also promise to be proactive for women in my life or in my business, and look for opportunities for them. The rule that there was only one female-friendly seat in the board room is no longer relevant, so I promise to see women in my life and in my company as partners, not competition.

I Promise to Pay and Promote Women Equally

As a Recruiter, I’m involved from the start of someone’s tenure with my company – and able to affect their longterm earning potential. Negotiating pay at the onset of a new position affects every increase you receive from then on – and as such, I owe it to my company and my candidates to start this relationship off fairly.

I promise to be honest with every candidate about our pay range and what they can expect to see from each position in terms of growth. I promise to let women know if they’re underselling themselves or aiming lower than the market can support – even if my company can’t afford to pay them what they’re worth. I promise to fight just as hard for women to get that sign-on bonus. And I promise to cut off any discriminatory language or habits, from the job description to the interview process to the hiring decision.

As an independent business owner, I promise to pay vendors and contractors fair rates and treat customers (aka renters) the same regardless of gender. This should go without saying, but it’s still a promise. And speaking of…

I Promise to Support Women-Owned Businesses (and those that promote gender equality!)

It’s not like they’re rare, either. I’ve shared some of my favorite women-owned companies before, but there are so many to support!

Over 9 million businesses are owned by women (50% or more), employing more than 8 million people, and generating $1.4 trillion in sales as of 2008.

Source: American Express

Combine this with female purchasing power, and we have a perfect storm to bring up women-led businesses. Even better, we have tools that make informed purchasing easier than ever.

There are more women-owned businesses now than men-owned. They’re just not in the Fortune X00 listings – yet. So let’s change that.

I promise that my dollars will go towards businesses either run by or building up women. But, because businesses aren’t always pointlessly gendered, it can be hard to know which are which. Good thing there are tools at our disposal!

  • DoneGood – a browser extension that instantly suggests conscious alternatives to the products I’m already searching online.
  • Gender Fair – an index that scores companies on their commitment to gender equality.
  • Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index – although I know Bloomberg is at least partially asking companies to pay their way into a shiny new award, they still have standards. This index showcases companies committed to transparency in gender reporting and to advancing women globally.

I Promise to Stop the Cycle

Younger generations of women are closer to closing the gender pay gap than any other age group.

Among all workers ages 16 to 34, women’s earnings are more than 90% of men’s; this ratio drops for women ages 35 to 64, who earn 80% or less of what men earn across the board.

Source: Pew Research Center

The tides are turning, and the future is definitely gender-equal in the workplace – but the question is how soon can that future come? Whether it stops with our generation or the next, it’s time to start promoting healthy habits and expectations around gender in the next generation.

I promise to own my accomplishments and support my partner, and continue that transparency and support with kids as they come up. I promise to never make money a taboo or scary subject, and to promote confidence in personal finance from a young age for any and all young’ens whose path will cross my own. I promise to offer equal opportunities, scholarships, and professional or financial support regardless of gender.

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While I’d like to see true financial and professional equality before I hit my own professional peak, I’ll be satisfied just to see it happen during my lifetime. Hopefully, with these 5 promises, gender inequalities in finance will become a thing of the past.


Gender Equality may be a lofty goal, but we’re all doing our part to make it a reality. Financial Feminism is one small piece of the larger dream.

Take the #FinancialFeminist Pledge today and stand for womxn’s equality in financial opportunity and representation!



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