2016 Annual Conference

Americans engage in a culture of borrowing and spending, financial educators are tasked with teaching individuals to manage personal finances, save for emergencies, and invest in their future. Yet, conflicting messages to spend and participate in the marketplace are offered simultaneous to women-many of them aimed at women of color.

Historically, low financial literacy has had a significantly greater impact on women than men(Lusardi & Mitchell, 2008).However, a paucity of literature exists that focuses on educational practices of financial literacy programs where studies generally ignore the uniqueness of the population being served(Tisdell, et al. 2012). This session is design for anyone who seeks to better understand how the lack of research regarding pedagogical practices and the unique need of women, especially women of color given income disparities, type of employment, and fewer opportunities to save.

Financial education programs are often based on the presumption that higher education will result in positive financial behavior, such as saving, using credit wisely, avoiding excessive debt and saving for retirement. The problem is little attention is given to understanding how income, wage disparity, race and gender impact women of color and contribute to financial behavior. Personal and economic choices are never made in a vacuum. Organizational, cultural, and economic barriers shape both men and women's financial choices and opportunities. Issues of class, race and gender is particularly significant in that poverty is most likely to be experienced by women of color. Women of color are underpaid compared to other groups, it is usually women of color who are negatively affected by economic downturn due to the type of work performed and financial resources. Women of color are worse off when it comes to saving for retirement, or investments. The United Nations has framed the problem internationally" women face persistent discrimination when they apply for credit for business and are often concentrated in insecure, unsafe and low wage work"(English, 2014). The ultimate goal of financial education is to provide basic financial literacy tools for women of color.