Dr. Chang Talks Up Women and Wealth Building

Last week in her Washington Post column, "The Color of Money," Michelle Singletary recommended Dr. Mariko's book Shortchanged: Why Women Have Less Wealth and What Can Be Done About It.  Dr. Chang recently shared her findings and insights during our webinar, "Women and Economic Recovery: A Path Forward." As Chang discussed, women often do not have access to factors that contribute to wealth, such as fringe benefits. Women are overrepresented in part-time and low-wage jobs that do not offer fringe benefits such as health insurance and sick leave. The lack of fringe benefits bars women from getting on the “wealth escalator”, which compounds net wealth and fosters future financial stability.  For the long term, Chang recommends encouraging the development of government policies supporting childcare and/or care-giver credits that would help women increase their net wealth over the course of their lifetime.