Women's History Month
March is one of my favorite months of the year. And yes, it’s mainly because it’s Women’s History Month! No qualms about it, the celebration of women everywhere provides the much-needed reminder that femininity is what we, as those who identify as women, make it. From March Madness and watching the Women’s UK Wildcats basketball team win the SEC championship for the first time in 40 years to celebrating the birth of the musically majestic Mariah Carey, March is our declaration of power of the pussy!
Sorry, not sorry in event my use of the word “pussy” offended you. I think it’s high time women reclaim it from those who use it as a derogatory term and instead wear it like the pristine badge of honor it rightfully is. If we can do it with ‘bitch’ we can do it with pussy. Which reminds me of the timeless words of national treasure Betty White, “Why do people say, ‘Grow some balls’? Balls are weak and sensitive.
If you really wanna get tough, grow a pussy. Those things really take a pounding!”
And we do! We walk a narrowly fine line between bossy and assertive, demanding and confident, bitchy and bold. We consider multiple realms, avenues and angles instead of relying upon greed while considering the whole and not just the bottom line when making decisions. We navigate the treacherous waters of male ego, fragility and mediocrity like Moana on her way to restore the heart of Te Fiti.
Spoiler alert: Just as Moana made her way through trials, tribulations and mansplaining of a demigod in order to confidently return the heart and vitality of Te Fiti, we as women have to pound confidence into ourselves and other women to restore the vitality of our innate power.
If Moana can do it, so can we!
Frankly, it all starts with confidence. We as women typically do not assert ourselves like male counterparts because we were often praised for being well behaved, helpful, or quiet. Authors Katty Kay and Claire Shipman found genetic and gender factors play a role in the differences between male and female levels of confidence in their book The Confidence Code. However, they maintain, “Making a distinction between talent and effort is critical”.
Therefore, creating a growth mindset in women towards confidence evens the playing field. We may not get a spike of testosterone when a risk pays off, but we can measure our success through the eyes of effort and improvement, which has the extra-added bonus of instilling confidence as something we can control and get better at overtime. When that takes hold, mastery of confidence begins to radiate itself onto every woman we interact with like sunshine on a field of sunflowers.
As our sunflowers of confidence bloom freely, we are now ready for those sunflower seeds to branch off and take root into activities that will catapult women into positions of equality and equity. The following charts depict the utter necessity of women to confidently take their power in the realm of wage and wealth equality.
The chart on the left illustrates that the .15-.45 cent difference between every dollar white men are paid compared to women of different races. Conversely, the chart on the right denotes the disparity of assets amongst races. The racial wealth gap is the product of many factors, whereas the wage gap is having confidence of our inherent worth when negotiating our salaries. Like Mama always says, “What’s the worst they’re going to do, tell you no?” Hence why it’s called negotiating. You already did the hard part by getting the job, now make them pay you what you’re worth and add tax!
Let's Talk About TAX
Speaking of taxes, we as women have the ability to change the wealth gap between the sexes by the opposition of being pounded with a quarry of fees, know as the pink tax, on female necessities like shampoo, deodorant and tampons. The Pink Tax even extends to services such as going to the dry cleaners and contribute to costing women over $1,300-$1,500 a year. Primaries are coming up and if your officials haven’t addressed this issue or don’t stand with California Rep. Jackie Speier’s Pink Tax Repeal Act either call them out on their blatant misogyny or vote for the candidate who understands how unnecessary it is to place this tax on women.
Furthermore, this tax comes as an extra pounding especially when women are denied access to making decisions about our bodies and forced to spend what little dollars we make on the children abandoned by fathers who can pick and choose when they want to assume financial responsibility, but I digress. This isn’t about the limitations put on us by those with tender testicles but is instead about what the power of the pussy empowers us as women to do.
Turning Knowledge into POWER
As I was saying, women have innate skills that transfer to business like flights to paradise. If we can manage all the monthly utilities, mortgage, insurance, doctor appointments, kids’ extracurricular and play dates, we can stake our claim in the world of real estate and investing. Sites like investopedia, clevergirlfinance, hermoney and Kiplinger provide the basics of money and money markets, how best to utilize your money and how to pay down debt. Once you become familiar with financial terms and the stock market, sites such as Ellevest, SoFi and Robinhood provide the tools to turn knowledge into power.
Let’s be honest, ladies. If we can repeatedly walk around in 6-inch heels for hours at a time, we can get our money together! However, we must first understand that our journey with money looks differently than those within the penis club. On average, women live longer which means we have to become confident with taking more risks with our money in order to be financially secure during retirement. The best way to achieve this necessary confidence is, you guessed it, to take more financial risk.
I’m not saying to go all in on a tip you heard from a friend. Conversely, sites like Acorns, that round up every dollar you spend and invests the difference, allows us to reduce our perception of risk and gain greater financial confidence. Trust me, that confidence goes a long. Couple confidence with our propensity to research a good deal, having patience in times of uncertainty and volatility, while investing in environmental and women lead endeavors, it’s no surprise that women outdo men by almost 2% annually in their investments.
Maya Angelou said it best:
In other words, it’s within our phenomenal, feminine nature to get rich, bitch! The power of the pussy demands that we pound our financial power straight to the bank. We define what femininity is and if we decide that it looks like getting our money together so the only men we have to look to for our financial security are green-faced Benjamin Franklin’s and Teddy Roosevelt’s, then that’s our business. And we do our business phenomenally. In the words of the late great poet laureate Maya Angelou:
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Check out www.inclusivewe.com for our latest apparel campaign CLOSE THE GAP.
Profits from this line go directly to orgs that support closing the wealth gap such as: CWWG & NinetyToZero.