How Women Can Use Their Financial Power to Create Change

As the Harris campaign is in its final stretch, women are flexing their political —and financial —muscles. The first video-rally of Black women raised $1.8 M, followed by $8.5 raised by White Women For Harris. Then came Hype Women, Latinas, and “Childless cat ladies”—adding 380K to the kitty. The U.S. political system is feeling women's economic might. But it’s just a fraction of the Female Domestic Product (FDP), an entirely new concept, which if unleashed fully, could create real change.

The FDP represents all monies that women control. It includes capital, salaries, hourly wages, donations to women’s nonprofit organizations, revenues of women-owned businesses, companies owned by women, women’s VC or angel funds and pensions—including the $3 trillion held by teachers.  Like unpaid care labor, it goes uncounted—and underleveraged.

Why is it important? The FDP represents women’s power—and if aggregated could have a significant impact on women’s lives and political destinies. Deploying dollars collectively works; political action committee EMILYs List has raised $700 million and elected 200 pro choice women to Congress, 20 governors and another 1700 to local or state office. The 330 philanthropists of Women Moving Millions have catalyzed one billion dollars for women and girls. As women’s rights get rolled back, increasing the FDP means amassing more financial firepower to fight back.

After all, in America sadly, we get as much equality or freedom as we pay for. It wasn’t just suffragists marching that secured the white woman’s vote; a million dollar donation by Miriam Leslie funded the movement’s organizing. The development of the oral contraceptive which delivered reproductive and economic freedom was financed by $20 million in today’s dollars by MIT graduate Katharine McCormick Dexter, as Josie Cox relates in Women Money Power. (Understanding how money grants access, McCormick Dexter also built a dorm at MIT so more women could attend.) Today, money grants political speech: women donors account for about 30% of contributions to state elections, which yields 33% women legislators according to the Center for American Women and Politics.

The FDP barely existed until this century; before that women had little capital or equality  Indeed, remnants of the laws of couverture meant that husbands controlled women’s property after marriage, with their bodies and children being part of that property—and bled into archaic credit and banking rules that sometimes required male co-signers until outlawed in 1974. 

The FDP accounts for a sliver of the GDP pie. Just think about a household's largest monthly expenses such as mortgages, car payments, groceries--precious little goes to women owned businesses or ends up in women’s control. Capital merely trickles into the FDP.  Women-owned firms earn just about 1% of corporate spending globally.  According to Pitchbook, women-led startups receive less than 2% of VC funds--despite report after report on the funding gap. Data from the Lilly School of Philanthropy shows women’s charities receive just 1.8% of total donations. By far the biggest suck from the FDP is the average gender wage gap of $10,00-$20,000 per year--which deprives the FDP of $1.6 Trillion annually. That meager flow results in less women’s ownership overall, or a knee-capping gender wealth gap. 

The urgent need for FDP Growth is clear.

Closing the wage and wealth gap could shake things up. A larger FDP could free up money for more political campaign contributions to elect women legislators who advocate for the oft-ignored interest of women taxpayers and pass the Equal Rights Amendment; a federal guarantee for reproductive freedom and abortion care; childcare and paid parental leave. If the FDP grew, more donations could flow into women’s nonprofits that address issues that governments do not. It could underwrite women entrepreneurs who build companies that produce better formula, gender specific running shoes, antibacterial menstrual cups, as well as businesses that sell to the entire larger market. That in turn would generate more wealth held by women.

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Increasing the FDP means advocating for low wage pink collar workers and transparent pay policies to close that $1.6 Trillion annual wage gap. The free market won’t magnanimously offer women a 20% raise. To grow the FDP, people will need to intentionally spend with women-owned businesses and donate to nonprofits dedicated to women or women of color. It requires investing in women’s businesses--whether by women-owned crowdfunding such as ifundwomen, angel investing groups or women-created investment pools like Coralus. When women-owned companies such as Bumble or Rent-The-Runway go public, that also puts major deposits in the FDP.  Note that whether female founders have IPO’d or keep private ownership, they often direct some wealth toward the welfare and economic advancement of other women such as Tory Burch’s who started a foundation for women entrepreneurs—and is also fundraising for Harris. 

Although not as rich as Tory Burch, women represented 60% of donors to the Harris campaign in August—and 71% of donors during the debate (compared to just 37% of congressional donors). Yes, women can march and vote, but they can also marshal their financial power to advocate for women’s rights, a few dollars at a time. It might just win the election.