Posts Tagged ‘Jacki Zehner’
Friday Round Up: You Work Hard for Your Money But Do You Manage It Well?
Just two weeks ago, I was greeting the morning as I walked along the sparkling oceanfront in Santa Barbara. I’d spent the day before at the most remarkable Leadership Workshop put on by She Negotiates. Oh it was so beautiful, so restorative. I needed that hour of free flowing bliss before I strapping myself back into the plane for the seven hour trip back to New York. I spent most of the trip back thinking about the workshop.
Though I’d given the keynote and led part of the workshop, I was also there as a learner, wishing I’d had the negotiating skills She Negotiates partners Vickie Pynchon and Lisa Gates taught the group when I was starting out in my career. Do you know that failure to negotiate first salaries aggressively costs women on average $500,000 over our lifetime earnings? And that the more education you have and the higher on the career ladder you are, the more it costs you–as much as $1,000,000!
Well, here’s the good news: there’s a new surge of women determined to help us not just negotiate about money better but also to be a lot smarter about managing what we have. This week’s roundup is a collection of some of the best. Check them out, and learn.
Read More“Power Unused, Power Useless” in Women’s Financial Choices, Says Jacki Zehner
Among the many impressive women I interviewed for No Excuses, Jacki Zehner stands out. The youngest woman and first female trader to become a partner at Goldman Sachs in 1996, Zehner is a founding partner of Circle Financial Group. She matches her business acumen and success with her strong commitment to philanthropy, including the Women’s Funding Network and Women Moving Millions groups that focus on women and girls.
But Jacki Zehner doesn’t stop with making and giving money; she’s on a mission to gain gender parity in the financial industry where women in leadership roles have traditionally been few, and to encourage women to invest their money in ways that help other women get a fair shake in the business world. We both spoke at the Women’s Funding Network conference in New York in April. I was honored when she subsequently quoted my belief that “power unused is power useless” in her blog.
I had a chance to talk with Zehner about her latest endeavors to advance women through financial power. Here’s what she had to say:
GF: Women have obviously always worked–whether at home or in the paid workforce, but our work has not always been valued accordingly. Now that we are 50% of the paid workforce, what are the most important one or two things women should do in your opinion to make sure their work is valued at the same financial level as men’s work, individually or collectively?
JZ: Though we are now over 50% of the workforce, we are still the vast majority in lower paid jobs without benefits and make on average only 80% of the male wage. Women at all economic levels have to become more active players to create a better collective financial future. How they can do that varies dramatically – from organizing locally to advocate for change, to funding organizations that fight for our rights in courts, to at the most senior level women CEOS and executives taking the lead in their organizations to finally, truly, drive for talented women to be represented in critical mass. (30%) We have power, we are just not fully using it. (No excuses…right Gloria??)
Read MorePutting Your Purse Where Your Principles Are
Swanee Hunt sings the Mother Goose ditty, “The king was in the counting house counting out his money; the queen was in the parlor eating bread and honey,” to describe the gendered roles about money she learned at the knee of her Texas oil magnate father. Her sister, Helen LaKelly Hunt, talks about how her father brought her husband into his business because in the 1950’s it never occurred to him to hire his daughters.
How they went from that beginning to seed and lead the Women Moving Millions campaign which has thus far raised $176 million in $1 million+ gifts for women’s funds and organizations across the country reflects a journey often taken by women of wealth who want to use their money for worthy purposes. Indeed, while well-heeled men often go into politics or start businesses, women are more likely to start social movements or fund charities.
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