Sallie Krawcheck: Why Trump Could Benefit Women in Business

November 16, 2016 at 11:27 AM
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Could the election of Donald Trump as President be the "best thing that has happened to feminism" in a long time?

Sallie Krawcheck recently penned an article called "Why Trump Could Actually Be Good for Women in Business." Krawcheck is the CEO of Ellevest, a digital investment platform for women. She is also Chair of Ellevate Network, a global professional women's network.

"I'm hearing from more and more women that we must 'put on our big girl pants' and do this ourselves," Krawcheck writes.

Krawcheck points to "the Billy Bush conversation, the recent New York Times OpEd on 'bro talk on Wall Street,' even the light sentence for Brock Turner" as proof that more progress hasn't been made for younger women.

"This is some proof that we can't rely on others to fight this battle for us, and so we must redouble our efforts," she writes.

The key to do this is by leveraging the resources women have.

"We control $5 trillion of investable assets, we direct 80% of consumer spending, we're more than half of the workforce," Krawcheck writes. "We've got a lot of power."

While women have "a lot of power," it is not yet equal.

"[I]n a capitalist society, money is power," Krawcheck writes. "As noted, women have a lot of money. But we don't (yet) have as much as the guys do… and we won't be fully equal with men until we are financially equal with men."

Krawcheck put together a list for women on how they can assert the power they do have–here are some of them:

  • Mentor other women.
  • Amplify what other women say in meetings.
  • Point out when the words people use to compliment men ("aggressive" or "go-getter") are used to put down women.
  • Don't work at the company that doesn't "get it" on making the work environment one in which women can be successful.
  • Think hard about not joining or quitting a company that has no successful senior females running P&Ls.
  • Invest money in the markets. This will give women the opportunity to earn a higher return and close their personal "gender investing gap," Krawcheck writes.
  • Donate to a female candidate whose views line up with theirs in the next election.
  • Encourage other women to run for office.
  • Run for office.
  • Agitate for mandated parental leave. "Maybe it won't happen at the national level (leaving us as the only developed country in the world without one); but let's also fight at the company level (where only some 21% of companies have one … despite the fact that these leaves pay for themselves pretty quickly)," Krawcheck writes.

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