Among the various labels that women receive we can count: that we are conflictive, excessively dramatic and even crazy if we react, defend ourselves or raise our voice. It is also said that we are spenders, wasters of money. Thus the jokes about credit cards that “cry” when they see a woman nearby, or husbands who walk hours and hours behind their wives who go shopping, are still valid.
I wonder: how many women like that do we really know? ¿How many of our daughters, nieces, girlfriends, mothers, aunts, go out to “pop” their husband’s card? Surely we can all think of an example, yes. But is only one good enough to label all the others for the same thing?
On the other hand, if the question becomes: how many women we know are in charge of organizing and taking care of the family economy? How many look for prices, compare options, apply the famous “walk lady, walk” that we grew up with in the ’90s? There surely the number of examples that come to mind changes, because we see them shopping every day, we meet them at the supermarket checkout or juggling to pay for their children’s clothes and sneakers. In short, taking care of your money, not spending it.
In this Women’s Day, which after all what it is for is to put topics on the agenda and that we chat about them at least once a year, I propose that we think about how to give women tools, instead of perpetuating stereotypes that they undoubtedly do not construct. I think it’s time to rethink the concept that women spend without limits. Stop using funny examples from series and movies, and start applying what you experience in reality.
Let’s be agents of change. Let us be the ones who truly see women as those who, together with their partners, seek the best for their families, both in prices and quality. To help us take a new approach, just share tools and education instead of memes. Talk about money at the family table, even from adolescence, do not judge the decisions related to other families’ finances and, above all, stop seeing money as something bad or dirty that must be hidden.
I repeat, we all have in mind more examples of women who do magic with scarce resources, and not who spend even what they don’t have. Women who fight every day to get ahead, and not who go out of their way to liquidate their wallets. I propose that we honor them, and that we leave aside the caricature image of the impeccable lady who leaves the shopping center full of bags. So that the next generations have examples of more real women and less taken from a Hollywood movie.
*Celeste Sánchez is a communicator specialized in family finances and creator of Dinero en Orden.
by Celeste Sánchez
