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THE LOWDOWN

In this episode, I reflect on a joyful weekend at Disneyland with friends and shift focus to discussing significant financial concerns women face. Topics include societal debates on women's roles, the undervaluation of stay-at-home moms, the importance of financial involvement, the pay disparity between men and women, and challenges like the 'pink tax.'

Emphasizing the need for women to be compensated fairly and involved in household finances, I also encourage women to ask for raises and promotions, while advocating for broader societal changes. The episode aims to raise awareness and inspire action towards financial equity for women.

MENTIONED IN SHOW:

Website: www.lovealwaysjess.com/getstarted

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/love.always.jess

SHOW NOTES:

Episode begins at [00:00:54]

TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Hey, Hey, I hope that your week is off to a wonderful start. I am [00:01:00] starting my Monday off. With just so much happiness in my soul, I got to spend Saturday at Disneyland with my friends and we had a lot of fun. The lines were super short because of the heat. We also got to go to a warehouse sale and get some discounted luggage, enjoy a good lunch.

It was just a wonderful and I am thankful for my friends and the people that I spend my life with. and get to experience things with them. So I hope that you had a good weekend or that you have an upcoming weekend that you're excited for because it's important to spend those times with our friends.

This week we are going to talk about the financial concerns for women. Last week we spent time talking about the financial concerns for men [00:02:00] and this week we're going to talk about financial concerns that women have, ones that I've experienced. Yeah, let's get started.

One of the most polarizing things that we've been hearing in

our lifetime, when I say our, I mean my generation and I know generations before and generations beneath, but it's really become a huge political thing over the past few years that I've noticed. Is the concept of women in the workforce. We're definitely seeing it. In today's day and age being talked about because there's this huge

uproar and if you're on Tik Tok or on Instagram, you're seeing these trends going around about people arguing, having different opinions about whether or not women should be stay at home moms, whether or not they're. [00:03:00] Ultimate career or goal or the best thing to happen to them in life is becoming a mother.

And That women should be staying home and taking care of the household and taking care of children and they shouldn't be in the workforce or they should be able to handle both of them. And it's such a polarizing part of our everyday lives because mothers are essential. Women are essential in that aspect because Women, for the most part, carry children and give birth and are breastfeeding through the infancy stage.

And so a lot of people have their opinions on where a woman's place in society is. And I know you can't see me, I put air quotes around place, because everybody again has their opinion. And [00:04:00] that really does lean into the financial concerns for women. Because you have these differing and polarizing viewpoints of whether or not women should be working, how much women are making, how much they should be making as a stay at home mom.

There have been studies. that really show how much a woman makes if she's a stay at home mom for child care, education, cleaning, cooking. They added up all of the different jobs that moms do as stay at home parents. and they've put a financial value to it. Yet one of the main concerns for women is that they aren't proportionately paid for the value that they offer.

And I think it's interesting because

when we see men arguing for women [00:05:00] staying home,

one of the other opposing arguments we see for men from the same men who want women to stay home is that

their partner shouldn't be asking for like allowances or extra money. They should just be thankful that the husband has brought home money to put food on the table.

And that leaves concern for other women.

One of the biggest concerns that I have is that, And I know other people and I've had conversations around this.

I get concerned for people that I talk to women that I talk to who are stay at home moms, who don't have their hand in their finances, who don't know how much their partners make, who don't

care about the household income or care to know where the money's going and also don't care to have their own income on the side. And maybe not income [00:06:00] necessarily from a job, but an allowance from the partner. And I know that probably sounds bad, but basically there's a bucket in the budget to pay her for being a stay at home mom, because she does deserve to be paid.

So it creates these concerns

in the heads of women, because we're sitting here and we see stay at home moms who aren't fairly compensated or treated by the More than likely their male partner, horribly, or not included in the finances, and then they're not actually educated. So God forbid shit hit the fan, and they have to get out of a situation.

Not saying every single situation like that is going to end up bad, but if something were to happen, The husband dies, the husband loses their job they get a divorce, or abuse happens, and they have to figure things out on their own, or get out of the situation, they won't know what to do. [00:07:00] And so that concern does sit in the back of the mind for women these days,

because we should all be financially educated. We should all have some sort of income to ourselves, to our name. We should have access to bank accounts if we're in a shared household. We should be able, excuse me,

we should partake in the ins and outs of the finances. We shouldn't just be given a card to be like, hey, use this for groceries. Use this for Target. Use this to buy what you need for the baby. Women should be involved in the household finances. Even if you don't work.

And mainly because you don't work, you're the one who's running the household. You're the one who knows what the necessities are when your husband just brings home a paycheck.

These conversations should be being had between both partners [00:08:00] equally. And there should be something,

whether or not you want to call it like free money or your little like vacation splurge or whatever,

All women, regardless of their partnership situation, should have their own form of money and be responsible for it and be able to track it and be able to understand it and be able to play around with it. Because we live in a society that used to control so much of what a woman could do, especially when it came to finances.

It's been less than a hundred years when a woman could take out a credit card without her husband's name on it. It's been less than a hundred years. that a woman could buy a house without her husband.

And so many other financial blockades that were on women have been lifted. And we don't want to find ourselves back in those times where you need to. Your own [00:09:00] financial freedom, but you don't have the opportunity for that. You don't have the option for that. And that concern sits in the back of the minds of all the women, regardless of whether or not they're in the workforce or being a stay at home mom, because we don't want to end up back in those times where we can't do anything without a man's approval, without another person's approval, we should have the option and the freedom to do with our money as we please.

And that also comes to another point of a huge financial concern for women is the pay disparity. There is a huge pay gap between what a man gets paid and what a woman gets paid, and that pay gap widens when you start to talk about whether or not the woman is Hispanic, Asian, Black, Native American, You name it, we see the pay gap widen.

Obviously, we know at the top of the chart is white [00:10:00] men. And then we do see pay gap differences between men and their races. And then we see pay gap differences when it comes to gender. And then gender and their races.

So when women are being paid less,

it takes them more to be able to afford things.

Are there companies, are there programs out there working to shorten that pay gap? Absolutely. 100%. But it's not going to be enough anytime soon. So there's that concern in the back of women's heads of when I get this job, am I being fairly compensated? I have more experience than a male counterpart. Are they being paid more than me?

And one of the biggest things I always advocate for is talk to your co workers. About what you're getting paid in California, New York. They have to on all job postings, they have to show the pay range,

but that doesn't [00:11:00] necessarily guarantee that a woman is getting paid the same as a man. But talk to your coworkers, have candid conversations.

If you're somebody who's on the payroll side, don't share other people's pay information because that's not something that you have permission to do, but you're allowed to share yours. You're allowed to ask Michael next to you what he gets paid. If he doesn't want to share it, that's fine, but you're allowed to ask.

States try to make it seem like it's illegal to know, but it's not. At least, not any laws that I have heard of. Maybe there are in some other states, but I know for sure in California, you're allowed to openly discuss your salaries with your friends and your co workers. And you can't be retaliated against for that.

But it is a huge concern that when a woman enters the workforce, applies for a job, may have more experience, or equal experience, yet she'll get paid less.

And then that being paid less trickles down into [00:12:00] other areas of her life. If she's a single mother, it's gonna cost her more out of pocket because she doesn't have as much income to pay for things. She's gonna have to live in a cheaper place of living. She may have to sacrifice food for herself to be able to feed her children.

Lots of things can be impacted because of that lower pay. And so it is a real concern.

Another concern in the area is as women, we are paid less. But also on top of that, we have things called pink taxes. So a similar item for take for instance, razors, both men and women have to shave. Men's razors are cheaper than women's razors because of the pink tax. Now it's not an actual like federal or state tax that gets added on at the end of a sale, but it gets added on [00:13:00] in the actual cost of the good.

We also get quote unquote pink tax for our feminine hygiene products. The majority of us bleed every single month. This is human nature. Unfortunately, it sucks, but it is what it is. We bleed every single month. It is part of being able to bear children, and we

pay for it, literally.

And a lot of us find it unfair that only women have to pay more and are penalized for something that happens to us naturally. I

mean, we walk into a bathroom. in public and we have to pay money for tampons or sanitary napkins

if we're on our period and don't have anything with us. Or we have to pay higher prices at the grocery store or the retail store to be able to afford these products.

And I know homeless women are only given a certain number of products [00:14:00] every single month for their period, but it's not enough to cover for multiple days and women bleed for multiple days. So there's penalties that are out there for being a woman that aren't taken into consideration by all of society.

We've been screaming about it for years,

but women are penalized for existing. We get paid less. We have to pay more on products that are a necessity to us. We pay more than men on certain products that are necessity to both. And it's unfortunate. And those concerns.

are always in the back of our head of, it's unfair. Our dollar doesn't stretch as far as it does for other people, as it does for a white man, or any man. And so then we question, are we going to be able to afford our rent? Are we going to be able to afford food? Are we going to be able to afford electricity?

Having [00:15:00] children?

We want to be able to live in a society where we're getting paid equally. And where we can say that we are confident in our finances

and that

the future that we are building can compete with the man's

some of you might be sitting here and thinking. Those are moot points. They're not really that big of a deal.

Women can find a way to make it work. And that is true. We've been finding ways to make it work forever. We're resourceful. We figure it out. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be given fair opportunities.

And that also doesn't mean that there aren't women who are given those fair opportunities.

We live in a society that has people of all different types of backgrounds. That you can point to and say, they made it, they did it, but that doesn't mean that because that person has made it or that person has done it, [00:16:00] that everybody else that is similar to them still isn't affected, still isn't concerned.

We also live in a society that

takes advantage of the free labor of women,

and we are seeing women challenge that, and we are seeing how it is. affecting and changing society as a whole. Like I said at the beginning of this episode, we are in a point in time where there's such polarizing viewpoints of what a woman's greatest achievement in life is. And if you're somebody who doesn't want children, and somebody says to you, but children are the greatest thing that could ever happen to you, it's sickening.

Because you're like, I don't care. That's your opinion. doesn't mean that is the greatest thing for me. And if you're the woman who doesn't want children and your career is one of the most important things to you, then you're really going to be [00:17:00] focused on making sure that you are getting fairly compensated and equally compensated to that of a man.

And your concern is going to be on that financial aspect. And so it's only fair that as a society, we sit down and we don't. work towards what is better for a woman. What is the thing that is going to create joy for them or be their greatest achievement in life? Because one, we don't do that for men. And two, it's different for every single person.

And we should never tell somebody what they need to do with their life to bring them joy, to bring them success.

What we should do is we should create. a society, a level playing field where anybody can show up where they are, anybody can show up to what they want to become and have the fair advantages to get there, to pull it off, to [00:18:00] make it work. If you want to be a stay at home mom, great, but let's also compensate you for that so you're not worn out.

So that you're not tired, so that you have the finances to be able to buy yourself a little treat or take yourself on a vacation, or go out with your girlfriends. Because you work your ass off. Being a mother is a hard job and doing that all day long is exhausting. I'm even yawning thinking about it. So we got to make sure that we're working towards creating this place where whatever is going to bring you joy, whatever is going to bring you success in life, you can go after and be supported by your friends and your family and your husband or your wife or your partner and society as a whole

and not have to worry about those concerns.

So if you're a woman who is a stay at home mom and you [00:19:00] are not a part of your family's finances, Start opening that conversation up with your partner. Ask him or her, can I become involved in this? What are your thoughts on compensating me a little bit for the work that I do at home?

And if you're a man, start to include your wife.

If you are a man and you're at the office and you realize that your co worker gets paid less than you, but does more work than you, talk to them Encourage them to ask for a raise.

Or talk to HR and ask if there's any,

Compensation analyses that are being done to ensure that fair compensation is happening across the board. And if you're a woman who doesn't feel like they are being paid enough at work, don't be afraid to ask for that raise. Don't be afraid to ask for that promotion.

It's scary to do, but you can do it. I believe in you. I've got an [00:20:00] episode on it that, I forget which episode it is. We'll link it in the show notes, but we've got an episode that talks about asking for that raise, asking for that promotion because you do deserve it. So I encourage you to go after it.

We have concerns in life and we have concerns around our finances. And the best thing that we can do is we can try to change it from our perspective and make it better for ourselves while simultaneously encouraging other people to change it for themselves too.

It may not be something that you can change for the whole collective, but if you can step up to the plate and change something for yourself and show other people that it could be done and encourage other people to do it. Then eventually our world will get to a point where we appreciate stay at home moms a whole lot more, where women in the workforce get paid equally to men, everybody gets paid equally,

and we get to a [00:21:00] place where women aren't paying extra money on products that are the same as men's products or a necessity for our monthly cycles.

There are so many other concerns that women go through, but those are some of the biggest concerns we've been seeing popping up over the past few years. And they're polarizing, and they create conversations in the political sphere, and they create conversations in so many other different realms, and you're constantly seeing bashing on the internet from people who have opposing views.

It's okay to have opposing views. It's okay to want somebody to be a stay at home mom or tell them that's going to be the best achievement in life. And it's okay to believe that women can do dual, be a mom and work, or that women don't need to have children. We all have different opinions,

but the biggest thing that it comes down to is live [00:22:00] your life the way that you want to live it, but let's make sure that women are fairly compensated and are involved in the finances so that we're not being left out of the picture if something happens. Because I can't tell you how many times I've heard where women are older and their husbands die and they have no idea what to do with the finances or they've never held a job and their husband loses a job and then they have to go back into the workforce and figure things out.

Or they do have to get divorced for whatever reason. And They're not sure how to be able to take care of themselves. We don't want to leave women

behind, I guess is the right way to say that. It's like the no child left behind thing. But we don't want women to be left out of these conversations. We don't want women to be impacted by conversations like [00:23:00] this. So let's start to do better as a society and let's start to encourage women to be involved more.

Even if it's simply knowing what your husband makes. and the cost that it is to run a household. Just being involved, understanding the numbers, knowing the numbers. That's a simple place to start.

And then you can grow from there and build to a more financial savvy ground and understanding

that's going to help you in the long run. So that those concerns disappear. Because the what if is always there. We don't like the what if. We don't like to think about the what if. But the what if is always there in the back of our head. And I'm not hoping that the worst happens for you. I don't want the worst to happen to you.

I want the greatest to happen to you. But it's natural for humans to think of the worst, and it is possible for the worst to happen. And the last thing you want is to be concerned about money, because you don't understand it. The last thing [00:24:00] you want is to fear money. So my hope for you is that,

Those concerns are eased and they are able to figure it out and they are able to jump in and become more involved in your finances or ask for more and get that raise or whatever is easiest for you to do right now.

And men, I hope that you become involved in these conversations and include your partner.

Thank you for taking the time to listen. I hope that it was helpful. I hope that you got a better understanding of what concerns women have around finances. I look forward to talking to you next week. Bye. [00:25:00]