March 9 2012 Australia’s legendary feminist Anne Summers visited MAD Women with worrying news: our economic security is getting worse, not better, and the gender gap is widening.Gender-Equality-Stats-2009
Lively discussion at this event seemed to run aground on the issue of stay at home mums Vs staying in the workforce. To me it’s not either/or but rather what we can do to ensure women are INDEPENDENTLY financially secure throughout their lives, whatever choices they make.
It’s clearly confronting to consider what would happen if hubby leaves, gets sick, gets violent or dies. No matter how sweet things look today, the unthinkable can and does happen – and then what? If you have no super and nothing saved for your old age, one day you might find yourself like so many women over 65 today living in poverty. With women’s life expectancy 95 that’s 30 years getting by on the smell of an oily rag.
Surely it’s better to talk about the unthinkable and MAKE SURE you are financially secure no matter what than put your head in the sand and hope it never happens to you.
Some ideas for mums or mums to be: continue to work from home/online; go halves on staying home with the kids; work even 1 day/week to keep up with latest developments in your chosen field; hubby places $ in YOUR super fund while you’re home raising kids; put the baby bonus into your super fund.
The next MAD Women speaker will be Marlyse Carroll on May 25th with her talk: ‘Is there a dark side to spiritual evolution?’ Hope to see you there!