S6E2: Embracing Financial Feminism w/ Jacki Zehner
28m | Feb 1, 2024We are exploring economic inclusion this season, and today we are focusing on the intersections of gender inequality and finances.
Here to talk a little bit more about this is Jacki Zehner. Jacki refers to herself as an enthusiastic and dedicated financial feminist. In 1996, she became the youngest woman and first female trader to be made partner of Goldman Sachs.
Today, she works to provide women with the tools to grow social capital and achieve financial freedom through her companies ShePlace and SheMoney.
She chats with host Frances Johnson in this episode all about the false narratives many women have around money, building community through talking about money, starting active money management earlier in our careers, and what stigmas we might have attached to money that don’t belong there.
Eccles Business Buzz is a production of the David Eccles School of Business and is produced by University FM.
Episode Quotes:
Time is the biggest variable when it comes to money
[26:44] My biggest thing to remember, like a big money tip, is to know that time matters. Time is the biggest variable when it comes to money and having a healthy financial future. So the earlier we educate our kids, the earlier we take responsibility for our money. The compounding effect of that is extraordinary, and one of the things that hurts my heart the most is to be in conversation with people that are my age or older, saying, "Shoot, why didn't someone tell me to talk, think about this, do it, take care of it earlier?" It's like our health—the same thing. Don't wait for a crisis to catalyze your curiosity or necessity.
How do women experience inequality financially?
[05:16] The wage gap is one of the biggest ways that women experience inequality. Of course, we have the investing gap, which is women, in general, invest later, invest less. So what that means is in the context of the investing experience or those participating in wealth creation through investment, and we can talk about the reasons for that, there's also a big gap. There's also the wealth gap and, equally, the retirement gap. And you can imagine if you make less because they all build and interconnect with each other. If you make less and invest less, and again, these are huge averages, and talking about sort of these bigger macro things, not how that might manifest at an individual level, but that means, and women live longer, so what that means is you have less money in your later years, which means a different, perhaps, standard of living, on average, and less money to take care of your future self. And there are other gaps, too, as it relates to money, which is, again, one of the reasons I started SheMoney: is confidence gap.
Talking about money is not bragging about money
[17:27] Talking about money is not bragging about money. Talking about money is not making money; it is something bigger than it is, which is a resource, a medium of exchange, and a store of value…[17:51] And we tell a story about money too, that is especially tied up with status and achievement—that, if you were smart, you'd have a lot of money. If you were this and made good life choices, you'd have a lot of money. And that's just not true. There's a lot of luck involved.
On normalizing money talks
[18:31] I think we all have these beliefs and behaviors that came from somewhere, and to be able to debunk those myths and normalize talking about money in the context of recognizing its value around our own well-being is, I hope, going to take away from those fears that we all have that we're going to be judged either for not having enough or having too much.
Show Links:
- Brene Brown Money talk (Jacki references posting it in the show)
- New York Times Article - Women in India (Frances references in show)
- SheMoney | LinkedIn
- Women Who Succeed
- SheMoney Summit Summer 2024
- Ray Arata
Guest Links:
