Orman's Financial Feminism Enlightening

By: Kareem Mohni

Posted: 3/13/07

People first, then money, then things." This powerful catchphrase from Suze Orman, America's most famous female personal finance expert, demonstrates her strong personal devotion to helping people achieve a healthy relationship with their money. As Women's History Month is well underway, I would like to take the time to highlight this excellent example of a modern feminist. With the release of her newest book, "Women and Money," Orman is the ideal feminist helping women empower themselves in a healthy way by focusing on their relationships with their money, and ensuring that they have the necessary skills to become financially secure.

Orman has impressive credentials that prove her ability to help women master their money. She has been working with and investing money professionally for more than 20 years. She is a Certified Financial Planner and is a highly sought after motivational speaker. Orman's credentials are augmented by her keen understanding of the interplay between emotions and money - not only does she know how to correctly inform people about their financial choices, but she also takes into account their psychological hang-ups about their money.

While Orman is a skilled personal finance expert who gives advice to both men and women, women are more receptive to the message of another smart, compassionate woman, and are therefore more likely to respond to the message in a positive manner. This is why I am focusing on Orman's relation to women as her defining role as a modern and influential feminist. In "Women and Money," Orman highlights many of the reasons that women traditionally have more trouble with money than men and talks about the personal changes women need to make in order to become financially secure.

The most important thing Orman points out is the reason women and men experience money differently. In an interview with The New York Times' reporter Deborah Solomon, Solomon accuses Orman of perpetuating the stereotype "that women are birdbrains when it comes to managing money." Orman points out that her book explains quite the opposite. She explains that women are very good at saving their money, but because of their psychological hang-ups, they give away their money to friends and family to the extent of harming themselves financially. Orman elaborates on this idea in another interview with NBC where she explaied, "That's why this book had to have a psychological bend. I had to get into the minds and souls and hearts of women to say, 'Ladies, do you understand it? We're voluntarily committing financial suicide.'"

"Women and Money" is a very straightforward book with simple steps for women to take to secure their financial future. Orman includes in her book what she calls, "the eight qualities of a wealthy woman." Taking into account the idea that women too freely give their money away to needy family and friends, combined with statistics showing that most women do not ask for raises as often as men and most women do not have a will or trust, Orman leads women through the steps to financial security by addressing each of these issues. According to Orman, a "wealthy woman" has the qualities of harmony, balance, courage, generosity, happiness, wisdom, cleanliness and beauty. Some examples of how these qualities apply to the wealthy woman in relation to women's issues are that a wealthy woman has the generosity to give money to family members only if she is able, she has the courage to ask for a raise if she deserves one and she has the wisdom to establish a will and trust to provide for her finances.

These qualities address many of the psychological problems that keep women from dealing wisely with their money. Orman is successful because of this approach - her compassion and understanding of women makes her ideas both popular and effective. Arguably the most important quality of the wealthy woman is beauty. In a motivational speech about her book "Women and Money" that ran on public television, Orman emphasizes that by beauty, she does not mean makeup, clothes, and physical appearance. Beauty, according to Orman, is the aggregate effect of all of the other seven qualities, "Beauty is what you create when you incorporate the other seven qualities into your life." By including all of the qualities in your life, "you will exude confidence in who you are. And there is nothing more beautiful than a confident woman."

As Women's History Month progresses, we must remember important and influential women who help other women change for the better. Orman is the ideal feminist as she teaches women to be independent, beautiful and to value themselves in a positive and constructive way. It is enlightening to see a feminist who truly understands how to empower women, and not just in a way that objectifies their sexuality, like many other alleged modern feminists. Unfortunately, women like Orman do not get the publicity they deserve for their work as leading feminists. Instead, as is so readily seen on our campus, pro-sex and pro-vagina feminists prevail, completely obscuring the true feminists who really help to change women's lives for the better.

Weekly Columnist Kareem Mohni is an 8th-semester molecular and cell biology major. His column appears on Tuesdays.