Changing the Trajectory for Girls in Finance
Finance isn't just a career path, it's a life skill. Women are at a disadvantage in both.
In the U.S. and Western Europe, we start to lose girls in math at age 9. We don’t have this problem in Russia, China nor Eastern European countries. This is a cultural issue, not a capability issue.
Girls' engagement with STEM wanes even further in high school, just as they are beginning to consider their college majors/minors and future careers.
Girls take finance and economics classes at lower rates than boys in high school and college, leading to lower financial literacy rates and fewer career opportunities in the financial services field.
For every $1 dollar Caucasian men earn, Caucasian women earn 72 cents, African-American women: 63 cents, Latina women: 54 cents.
Women have only 32 cents for every dollar owned by a man and in these terms, "wealth" is practically non-existent for black and Latina women, who own a penny for every male dollar.
Two-thirds of the $1.5 trillion U.S. student loan debt is owned by women.
A record 40% of all households with children under the age of 18 include mothers who are the sole or primary source of income for the family (up from 11% in 1960).
So I’m headed back to school.
In fact, five of the women at my company have joined the classroom at Rogers High School in Newport, RI for the 2022/23 school year. We are teaching financial concepts, shining a light on career opportunities, helping the girls write their own stories… stories that include money. Earning it, saving it, managing it, working it.
Kristin MacMannis, Stacy Havener, Alicia Purden (Havener Capital) with two Rogers students
We do this work by partnering with Rock The Street, Wall Street (RTSWS) — a financial and investment literacy program designed to bring both gender and racial equity to the financial markets and spark high school girls’ interest in financial careers.
This is our second year partnering with this non-profit to teach at Rogers High. Students that go through the RTSWS program average a 78% increase in their financial literacy and graduates of the program are 5X more likely to pursue degrees in finance or economics.
We’re honored to do our part to change the financial literacy trajectory for girls. I wish I had this class in high school. I wish I had mentors like this Havener crew.
“Don’t talk about it; be about it.”
— one of my favorite mantras —
