Here we are in the year 2017, more than one hundred years after women got to vote in Australia, 50 years after we were allowed to continue working once married and we’re still talking about the gender pay gap across many sectors. Thankfully some progress is being made and where’s it’s not we want to help you with a special Valentines Day gift.
But first let’s celebrate that Australia’s highest paid executive is a woman, and slowly more businesses are setting their own diversity quotas to encourage more women into senior management positions.
More women are also graduating from universities with degrees in Australia than men, and in decades to come, more women stand to inherit the bulk of Australia’s retirement wealth – into the trillions of dollars.
But as Susan Wahhab, the author of Money Intelligence and regular Financy contributor points out, there remains a gap between men and women: in pay, in superannuation balance and in the overall net wealth.
Here’s Susan’s thoughts on it all and why she wants to help women. And because it’s Valentines Day, Susan is giving away her ebook to Financy readers in the hope of helping women build wealth and close the gender pay gap.
“Add to this gap, the continual responsibility of primary child rearing and house work on women.
“The odds somehow keep being stacked against us. Every time we move two steps ahead fighting for change we somehow seem to move one step back.
“I believe the next stage of our fight for liberation is going to be fought in the boardrooms rather than on the streets.
“Gone are the years where “burning our bras” is going to make significant change. The next “fight” is about fighting to close the pay and super gap.
“The next fight is about our financial worth. For without money we cannot have power.
“And without education we cannot have money. Without money intelligence, we cannot close the pay, super and net wealth gap.
“Getting educated about money can no longer be a subject we push aside or ignore.
“This is for our families.
“Every time a woman asks for her fair share of pay, she has the capacity to divert that extra income to better her family’s financial position always having the interest of her family and children in mind.
“She pays more towards their education, she saves the extra money on the mortgage and puts her family’s needs first. In the long run that helps her family and the country too.
“When I was growing up I saw how my mum joined forces with my dad to save the family business and take control of the business finances.
“At age 25 in a small conservative town, mum became the money manager and took control of the family’s business and finances.
“Without the support and guidance of Eli, a family friend – whom I refer to as the money mentor – my parents would not have been able to pay off their business debts, equivalent to $500,000 in today’s money value – and save aside for the family home.
“I could see how Eli’s mentoring and guidance allowed mum to close this income and wealth gap that was the norm 40 years ago by fulfilling her life purpose as the family’s money manager and became dad’s business partner.
“This ebook is a pay it forward gift to every woman who wants to take control of her finances and her future, who wants to get out of debt like mum did and get ahead financially.
“It’s for every woman who wants to close the gap. Like Eli, my parents’ money mentor, I share my financial knowledge and experience with every woman who wants to achieve financial and personal liberation. This ebook is for you.”
