{"id":691,"date":"2016-07-01T11:25:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-01T11:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/?p=691"},"modified":"2023-10-30T14:21:58","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T14:21:58","slug":"money-money-money-its-a-rich-mans-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/2016\/07\/01\/money-money-money-its-a-rich-mans-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Money, money, money … it’s a rich man’s world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Money can be a scary thing when it comes to relationships, especially for women.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

When my parent\u2019s marriage ended, we went from a two income family to a one income family overnight. My mother was left with a car loan (but no car), a mortgage and all the expenses that come with having two children. We struggled to make ends meet and eventually the bank forced my mother to sell our family home. It took around 10 years for her to recover financially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was almost 30 years ago. Back then, there was no understanding of the term \u2018financial abuse\u2019 and there wasn\u2019t a lot of support from banks, utility companies or debt collectors when it came to financial hardship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial abuse<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Financial abuse is a problem without geographic, economic, or social boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not confined to an age group, religion or ethnicity, so we need to raise awareness of financial abuse across the entire community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best estimates suggest two million women in Australia have experienced financial abuse, yet the community\u2019s understanding of the issue is low and programs to address it are in their infancy. And money is one of the top reasons why women don\u2019t leave abusive relationships. Yes \u2026 money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public awareness of financial abuse is so low that many women who have experienced it don\u2019t identify themselves as victims and, even if they do, they don\u2019t know where to turn for help. Thirty years ago my mother didn\u2019t realise it \u2026 but she was a victim of financial abuse.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we\u2019re starting to see some action but so much more needs to happen. Banks and utility companies are introducing measures to support women who have experienced financial abuse and Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission into Family Violence dedicates several days to testimony and many pages of its report<\/a> to financial abuse. The Royal Commission recommended greater education, practically in industries where staff may be able to identify financial abuse and make appropriate referrals such as finance and utility ombudsman services and bank staff. It\u2019s great to see the Victorian Government committed to implementing all the recommendations from the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year Good Shepherd Microfinance launched a new online training module Women and Money: an introduction to financial abuse<\/a><\/em>, to educate our 1,500 microfinance workers across Australia on how to recognise the warning signs of financial abuse and make appropriate referrals to organisations that can assist these clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar training could be rolled out to financial institutions and utility providers, so they know the tell-tale signs of financial abuse and can direct these women to relevant support services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial abuse is just one of the many examples of entrenched gendered income inequality in Australia. We know that girls receive less pocket money than boys, women graduates earn less than their male peers and women earn 19 per cent less than men. To say nothing of superannuation. But another issue is starting to emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Payday lending<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re also learning that the number of women turning to high-cost payday loans to pay for everyday living expenses is increasing, as is the amount they\u2019re borrowing, suggesting an increasing number of women are being excluded from mainstream credit options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the industry has grown by 80 per cent over the last decade, the number of women using these loans has grown by 110 per cent. Over the same 10 year span, the average loan amount has dropped by $165, but the average loan for women rose by $165.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This increase in women using payday loans is, in part, a symptom of gender inequality, as many women in low paid jobs, casualised workforces or carers of children and older parents look to supplement their income.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s have an honest discussion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At Good Shepherd Microfinance, we\u2019re calling for the incoming Government to make women\u2019s financial resilience a high priority with a focus on financial abuse and payday lending. However, the reality is that these two problems are symptoms of larger issues, namely, structures and policies that limit a woman\u2019s ability to achieve financial stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My hope is that the incoming Government can have a \u2018real\u2019 and honest discussion about the institutional barriers that curb a woman\u2019s ability to achieve long-term financial stability. This includes the current structures of superannuation, the gender wage gap, casualisation of gendered industries such as jobs in the health, education and community sectors and access to childcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we\u2019d had this discussion 30 years ago, my mother\u2019s financial situation after divorce may have been very different.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Money can be a scary thing when it comes to relationships, especially for women. When my parent\u2019s marriage ended, we went from a two income family to a one income family overnight. My mother was left with a car loan (but no car), a mortgage and all the expenses that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1073,"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions\/1073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialimpactagenda.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}