Tennessee Women’s Economic Summit October 24th

October 18, 2011

By Sandra Bennett for The Tennessean – It’s a long-standing joke that men prefer to drive around lost for hours on end instead of stopping at a gas station to ask for directions or to look at a map.

Speaking from personal experience and on behalf of most women I know, we just don’t have time to drive aimlessly. We’d rather look at the map. And, we’d like to find more than one route that will get us to our destination. We need a map.

Women make up 51 percent of the population of Tennessee and statistics show a steady increase of women in our workforce, as primary breadwinners, and as heads of households. Sadly, statistics also show a gender wage gap that has changed very little over the years, with women still earning only 80 cents to a man’s dollar.

Women are holding the purse strings in most families, and are trying to make ends meet with less. The decisions they make on spending are not only tied to their family’s economic well-being, but also have a residual impact on the economic well-being of our state — so financial and social equity for women is more important than ever before. Everyone really needs a map.

The 2011 Economic Summit for Women, Oct. 24 at the Nashville Airport Marriott, will have an overarching theme of a “Road Map to Financial Equity.” The summit will showcase the most recent report by the Tennessee Economic Council on Women, “Women in Tennessee — Indicators of Social & Economic Well-Being” and will include keynote speakers Jean Chatzky, journalist, author and financial editor for NBC’s Today; Kathy Hannan, national managing partner of diversity and corporate responsibility at KPMG; and state House Speaker Beth Harwell.

In these tough economic times, when financial issues are not only being discussed at every level of government but also at the kitchen table of almost every family in America, having a road map is a good idea. Thanks to the Women’s Economic Council Foundation, the women of Tennessee have one. Now, if we could just get the men of Tennessee to look at it!

For more information and to register for the summit, visit www.womenseconomicfoundation.org. Note: Men are welcome to attend, as well.

Sandra Bennett of Manchester is secretary of the Women’s Economic Council Foundation and serves on the steering committee of the Economic Summit for Women.