Yesterday was a Mother's Day in my home country.
All the best to the Mother's of the world!
I have been contemplating for a while to include a series of stories of single mothers who were left by the fathers of the child in order to underline the point why I think it is so crucial to teach financial literacy to young girls, young females and in general to any female. And I think in the long run I will include some of the cautionary tales of my friends, family members, even my own. But there is this one thing that makes me wonder if this would have the desired outcome in a form of which I am thinking. Drop a comment if you think this is something interesting to read about.
I don't like quoting from the fascists of the World War II, but there is this famous quote from Mr Stalin:
“If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. If millions die, that’s only statistics.”
I actually started to notice the opposite, that people around us became much more immune to the suffering of single person. Only dropping a large number causes some of them to stop lying to themselves, that the narrative in their head of this being a single event connected to this one person, is in fact a false assumption.
In a way people need a very good example of a singular victim to identify themselves with him or her. (In our case the protagonist will be a woman, due to the nature of the post, and the blog, and my instagram account (IG:@muminvestor)). But I also have a feeling that when a tragedy of one person is blown up, as we have seen during the BLM movement after George Floyd tragic death (which happened about a year ago), it gives masses an excuse to downplay this tragedy as something singular; something that is not happening every day; something that journalists used for the bait clicks; something that does not concern them or their neighbors.
This is why I would like to start from discussing a great article I have read by Sarah Jane Glynn about Breadwinning mothers of America. I absolutely encourage you to take a look at the charts in the article to understand the context. A household in this article is defined as a family unit in which a child under 18 is living with at least one parent.
Here are some main take-aways about poorest people in America:
- 60.6% of lowest income households in USA have a single mother as a breadwinner
- 8.8% of lowest income households in USA have a married mother as a breadwinner
- 30.6% of lowest income households in USA have a father as a breadwinner.
It is relatively self-explanatory why the statistics look like that, given the fact that females in general earn less than males. In the case in which a woman is left with a child the likelihood for her to get a good job diminishes.
The author then splits the groups by ethnicity and we really see some disparity there:
- 51.1% of all black households have a single mother as a breadwinner
- 25.7% of all Hispanic households have a single mother as a breadwinner
- 16% of all white households have a single mother as a breadwinner
- 13.2% of all other ethnicity households have a single mother as a breadwinner.
I also loved the part where the author states that there is no linear correlation between level of female education and single parenthood. BECAUSE THERE ISN'T. Single parenthood is not a result of female's stupidity. Two people were necessary to conceive a child. Two people are responsible for it not working out. These two people didn't work together as a family unit. That is all there is to it. Those of us single mothers who are better educated perhaps will fall into the higher income household brackets as a breadwinner, but academic education will not protect you from becoming a single mother. Take it from me, I have a PhD after all and I am a single mother. Quite frankly, the degree obtained is not defending you from getting a low paid job. It is actually more related to your ability to travel, organize daycare, having a support system of family who helps you take care of kids, etc. Having none of the above means you cannot take a nice paying job in a consulting company that has you flying around the world. Having kids , and especially being their sole caregiver, actually affects your market value and the types of positions you can take on as a woman. Simple as that.
What I do not understand is the lack of a narrative which would underline that when making a decision to become a mother, statistically it is us females who are more likely to become "western poor" in case daddy changes his mind. Those statistics tell us nothing about the daddies that are missing from the picture. Funny, isn't it?
Now if you are thinking, "Well, great, but that is in America. Europe is different!", then I encourage you to read more on this project website of project Female-Breadwinners in Europe.
I absolutely couldn't agree more with the conclusion of this study:
"Social policy analysis should pay greater attention to female breadwinners, as our findings suggest that many of the ‘new’ social risks associated with postindustrialism (e.g., in-work poverty, work/care conflicts) impact disproportionately on these women." Helen Kowalewska, Agnese Vitali
Some of the biggest issues related to advancing my career were so far related to daycare cost; daycare availability; lack of daycare support; necessity to organize daycare abroad if I want to travel with kids for work related reasons ( to the point in which even my employer told me to pay for my own trip because clearly when I take kids to work abroad I am on holidays so.... :) )
BUT Flowers for the ladies and a good word once a year... That will fix the problem ;D
("The Selfish Society: How We All Forgot to Love One Another and Made Money Instead" by Sue Gerhardt - I recommend to anyone who is willing to dive into the subject of how presence of attentive parent affects to the brain development of our children, to read the book)
The second aspect on why I believe females should be learning about financial independence is to give them that power to walk away from a bad life situation without the need to drop into poverty class of society.
Last but not least, utilizing the Fox Moulder's maxima "trust no one", it also provides a woman with tools to check if her breadwinning husband is in fact making sure that her financial needs are taken care of ("don't worry about anything my beautiful, I am providing for you!"). Because becoming single is not only due to men walking away on females with small babies, ladies. Men actually statistically die a little earlier than we do. Many widows find themselves in a strange situation, when their high earning husband who did not accumulate any wealth in their life, die all of a sudden ("The Millionaire next door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy" by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko), leaving a housewife without the source of income.
This was my big why. I think that financial independence is that one thing which can in the long run help us to become equally influential on how the society is build.
What inspired you to learn about financial independence, financial literacy?
Share your comments below :)
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