Herconomics is a Membership service which offers women an open and judgement free space where they get the opportunity to empower themselves and other women economically. The membership service will offer a website forum, Facebook group, events, expert educational webinars, workshops, courses, books, expert help and coaching to increase women's economic empowerment. Through personal research and research papers women in Australia and many other countries find the current financial services industry mostly male centric and condescending and too focused on the bottom line. Herconomics is that solution where women can come together in a women friendly, non condescending space and talk money without products and services constantly being pushed at them.
To compound our mission of women empowering women 50% of profits from Herconomics will go to fund women’s economic empowerment projects for example we plan to support not for profit social enterprise SisterWorks that helps women who are migrants, asylum seekers and refugees start and run their own micro businesses. They support women who are migrants, asylum seekers or refugees to become financially independent and happily settled in Australia
Who We Are
Hello lovely people my name is Wadzanai Nenzou and I am the founder of Herconomics a Global Sisterhood bringing women together to talk, learn and teach about money in an open and judgement free space. You can find our four hundred women strong community on Facebook under Herconomics Sisterhood talking, learning and teaching other women about money.
I have worked in the Australian financial services industry for the past 10 years and in this time the economic gap between men and women in Australia and globally have become even more obvious. Since I was a little girl in Zimbabwe observing my surroundings and noticing the gender inequalities I have been passionate about gender equality and how women’s economic empowerment plays a role in that. I remember seeing female relatives being forced to go back to abusive husbands because of lack of economic empowerment and it broke my heart and made me determined to play my part to change this.
I believe a global movement of women around economic empowerment can make an impact around this issue. There is power in women coming together for the purpose of lifting each other up. I love women and I am great at bringing women together it’s a natural gift I have of being a connector. I plan to harness this talent to bring women together to empower each other.
i am very excited to introduce Herconomic's first ever Intern the awesome Unaswi Ndaba who is about to finalize her Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Melbourne. She comes on board to help get the ball rolling this year and do a research report around Herconomics and Women's Financial Literacy.
Why this Solution?
Last year I did some personal research and asked many women from different backgrounds in Australia what they wish they had in order to learn about finance and empower themselves. I attended women’s events and asked, I spoke at events and asked and also ran a workshop and asked and most had a similar request. Most women I asked in 2016 wanted an open and judgement free space where they can talk and learn about money with other women.
Most of what is available out there when it comes to financial services is usually male centric, condescending to women and too focused on the bottom line instead of helping the women. To highlight the disconnect 80% of Financial Advisers in Australia are men. There is no connection and many women disengage from this environment. Herconomics plans to offer them a space where they can come together to talk to other women and experts about money in an environment focused on their education and empowerment and not the constant pushing of products and services.
Why It Matters
As we all know all over the world women are generally not as economically empowered as men. There are many horrible repercussions of this inequality. Firstly it lowers independence, freedom and wellbeing for women. In the Victoria Government's Royal Commission on Family Violence 2016 report it was highlighted that a lot of women stay in domestic violence situations because of lack of economic empowerment.
Another example in Australia is that older women are the fastest growing demographic among the homeless population in Australia, with years spent out of the workforce contributing to lower superannuation funds, lower incidence of home ownership, and lower personal wealth overall to draw on in retirement.
According to the ANZ Women’s Report, one-in-five women yet to retire has no superannuation, and, on average, women retire with half as much superannuation as men. Women also earn, on average, $700,000 less over their life than men. Some might think this won’t be an issue with younger women unfortunately the gender pay gap is still an ongoing issue and young women still take off more time out of work to care for children.
In the world as a whole the repercussions of this gap are huge and affect billions of people. McKinsey Global Institute presented a 2015 report that found that $12 Trillion could be added to Global GDP by 2025 by advancing women’s economic empowerment. That is a huge to lowering poverty levels worldwide and benefiting everyone.
Further to above according to UN Women;
- Evidence from a range of countries shows that increasing the share of household income controlled by women, either through their own earnings or cash transfers, changes spending in ways that benefit children
- A study using data from 219 countries from 1970 to 2009 found that, for every one additional year of education for women of reproductive age, child mortality decreased by 9.5 per cent
In a nutshell increasing women’s economic empowerment helps the women gain greater independence and freedom, increases their well-being and that of their families and community. On a bigger scale there is increased economic growth for countries and lowered poverty levels as women make up the majority of the poor about 70%.
Why this is the Opportune Time?
The past decade has seen increased momentum globally around girls and women’s rights which makes this the opportune time to truly work on closing the gender gap. A current example of this momentum are the recent Women’s Marches started in America which saw sister Marches globally of millions marching for girls and women’s rights.
More people in general are open to the idea and to doing the work and this gives all of us the opportunity to harness this momentum and get it done. The Global environment is unpredictable and unstable at this moment, it’s vital to empower more women to allow diverse voices and policies to be enacted which will help in increasing stability in unstable regions of the world.
How You Can Help
You can help by Contributing, Joining and Sharing. The Herconomics vision is about building a movement around women’s economic empowerment and that cannot be without your support monetary or otherwise. There truly is life changing power when women come together in a sisterhood.
Please join the Herconomics Sisterhood Movement by contributing to its launch and development and let's work at closing that economic gap and change the world. For the ladies please join the conversation at our Herconomics Sisterhood Facebook Group where you can ask and share anything around money in a safe, supportive environment. Please share this campaign and the vision with all your networks spread the word and make this vision a reality.
