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Introduction

“What’s so different about women’s money?”

It’s a question I get asked frequently. And the answer is almost everything. While it’s true that numbers and math don’t care about your gender, numbers and math are hardly the driving force behind personal finances. Instead, outside cultural influences often affect our financial situations more than we’d like to admit.

Let’s take salary, for example. Both in the United States and Canada, there is a substantial gender pay gap. When women are doing the same jobs as men, they’re making less money for it—except in a few select fields which remain unionized. If we take a step back from salary and look at just landing a job in the first place, everything from your gender presentation to your race to your accent can affect whether you get your foot in the door during an interview or not.

Even when we look at aspects of personal finance that we would think are more within the realm of our own control, internalized prejudice can taint our behavior. We may blow off a shopping spree as nothing because that’s just how women cope with stress according to society. This is despite the fact that men and women are nearly equally likely to be shopaholics. One of the women I interviewed for this book noted that she frequently heard people in her community brushing off their bad credit scores because, “All black people have bad credit.”

Whether we’re looking at internal or external oppression, those who would preach that numbers and math are all there is between you and a magical, early retirement at some ungodly age are wrong. They are likely oozing with privilege that blinds them to difficult realities which they themselves have never had to face. Or if they’ve worked their way out from a childhood of poverty themselves, they make an assumption that anyone else can do it, too, despite the fact that we all live under diverse and complex circumstances—even when we live in poverty.

That’s why this book exists. It takes a deeper look at economic inequality as it applies to earning, managing, and saving money within the context of oppression. It features the stories and advice of women who have looked the reality of these related struggles square in the face as well as the coping mechanisms they have used to either conquer or push through these challenges. You’ll find that their anecdotes are at the heart of this work; I am eternally grateful for their openness, their willingness, and the time they dedicated to this project. Please check out their information in the back of this book to find out where you can see more of their work. I mean, actually do it. Their voices are important and eye-opening. You won’t regret it.

Because I don’t want to utterly depress you, we’re also going to talk about ways you can work within existing systems. Prejudice and oppression are both horrendous, but unfortunately, they’re not going away any time soon. We have some long battles ahead of us. So we’ll look at some work-arounds that may help you propel your personal finances to that next level within the oppressive systems in which we live.

Before we dive in, there are a few terms I want to review. Feminism is widely recognized, and in recent years intersectional feminism has started to see some of the spotlight. But because these things are not discussed in all circles, I know there’s some vocabulary in these pages that might look foreign to some readers.

Intersectional Feminism: If feminism focuses on the oppression and equality of women, intersectional feminism focuses on the same for all oppressed groups. For example, you could be a white male who grew up in poverty. You’d be privileged because you’re male and white, but oppressed because of the economic situation you grew up in. You could be a black disabled woman from a wealthy family, inheriting the privilege that comes along with wealth, but facing deep oppression because of your race, gender, and the incapability others project onto you. We all have parts of our life that intersect with both privilege and oppression; the ratio is different for each one of us, though.

Kyriarchy: You know how the patriarchy is essentially an institutionalized and culturally accepted act of men ruling over women? Think of the kyriarchy in the same way, except instead of just men ruling over women, it’s also Europeans colonizing native lands while committing genocide and raping native women, white people exercising systemic racism even a century and half after they ended slavery without paying reparations, disabled people being thought of as incapable, and transgender people facing employment discrimination and sometimes even fear of death simply for living an authentic life; and the list goes on. Any type of institution and/or oppression that exists, that says one group is better than the other and therefore deserves more rights, privileges, and protections, is a part of the kyriarchy.

Heteronormativity: Heteronormativity is the dangerous assumption that everyone is heterosexual. While homophobia is an active fear of those who are attracted to the same sex, heteronormativity is a quieter and sometimes more insidious form of prejudice based on one’s sexual orientation. For example, someone with heteronormative values may not see how equal marriage is a moral issue outside of their own religious beliefs. They might repeatedly call your partner, wife, or husband your “friend” despite knowing full well the context of your relationship. It’s a series of aggressions that oppress those who are anything other than heterosexual.

Cisnormativity: Being cisgender means you identify with the gender you were assigned at birth. So cisnormativity is the dangerous assumption that everyone is cisgender. When you have cisnormative values, you might not want to allow people the dignity of going to the bathroom of the gender with which they identify. You may not want transgender people to serve in the military because their identity makes you uncomfortable and you want to punish them for it. It’s a damaging failure to recognize those who are not cisgender as full human beings.

Disablism: Abled people like to feel bad for disabled people and turn them into pet projects. But they like to complain when disabled people get pushed to the front of the line or when laws force them to spend a little money to make their business establishments accessible. They like to threaten sweeping cuts to Medicaid and Medicare—systems that help disabled people to live full lives and sometimes even to stay alive at all—because why should they have to pay for someone else’s health care? When abled people are doing these things, they are practicing disablism. They fail to see that just because someone can’t complete the same tasks in the same ways as themselves, it doesn’t mean they don’t have different and meaningful ways to contribute to society.

This book focuses on women’s money, the ways in which the kyriarchy oppresses and affects that money, and economic coping mechanisms that might help make things better for you until that kyriarchy falls. We’ll talk about wealth, the different ways in which we define it, and how you can live a life full of contentment regardless of your current money situation.

As you read these women’s stories, I hope you learn as much as I did. They have found some awe-inspiring ways to build meaningful lives while striving towards economic freedom.