If women had as much money as men, Tarana Burke would never have to start the #MeToo movement.
Or at least that’s what director Robin Hauser asserts in her freshly premiered film — “$avvy,” available online through April 10 — which pushes for women to take control of their finances and leave the patriarchal history of money just where it belongs: in the past.
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“Why are women, especially millennial women, abdicating their financial decisions?” Hauser asked in a recent interview with Katie Couric. “Societal norms dictate that finance is male territory.”
The film throws a daunting statistic right as it begins: 56% of women and 61% of millennial women leave their financial decisions up to the men in their life. Women’s absence in the workforce for most of history, as well the “Cinderella effect” — the myth that women need to be taken care of — play a role in the numbers, Hauser said.
One of the many financial experts interviewed in the film is Sally Krawcheck, co-founder of Ellevest, who suggests that the gender pay gap contributed to the toxic culture exposed in the #MeToo movement.
Hauser told Couric that too often, the person making the decisions about a young woman’s career trajectory is a powerful man.
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“It’s terrifying for anyone, but particularly a young woman just starting out in her career, to be faced with potentially losing their job, and for too long powerful men have used that fear as a means of manipulation,” she said.
The film promotes the idea that if women prioritized financial literacy, there would be more women CEOs and billionaires, which could reduce the number of cases of sexual abuse in the employment sector.
What’s most urgent now is that we educate the women of tomorrow, Hauser said. “For young women, if you’re not talking about saving and investing with your parents, or at school, or with your girlfriends, you’re just not going to learn about it.”
Trailer for “$avvy” below.