When I was 18, my mother walked me into our local banking branch and helped me open my first credit card with a limit of $500. Talk about privilege. In the US, women weren’t allowed to complete a credit application without a male cosigner until 1974. As a senior in high school, the strongest woman in my life empowered me to take control of my own finances, at an age when she would not have had such an opportunity. At the time I remember mostly being disappointed with the bank’s lack of card designs.
Last March, I held a class with some high school seniors and a couple of teachers to conduct an English discussion in honor of International Women’s Day. The conversation started by observing different roles that men and women hold in society and drifted into the state of women’s rights in Morocco. The male students were receptive to their female counterparts’ points and had some inspiring and open-minded viewpoints of their own – it was an incredibly eye-opening discussion that I had not yet experienced in my small, rural village.
Then a question was posed about women’s ownership of finances. Once again, the male students were extremely open-minded and showed support for a woman’s right to work and hold control of her own finances. Delving deeper, the question was personalized: “When you are married, and your wife has to stay at home to care for your children, will you give her joint control over your finances?” A shuffle in their seats. One by one, the male students responded, “no.”
When the question turned from theory to action, the answers changed drastically, and frankly I was taken aback by the contrast. It was a thought that I hadn’t really considered. Like challenges in Morocco, it had been clouded by my privilege. I challenge you to consider it: how much power does financial control and ownership give a woman, and how frequently are they inhibited from access? Financial control in Morocco gives a woman power to choose marriage, and also power to choose divorce – without it, it’s generally impossible unless the husband chooses it. In a country where women legally inherit less land than their brothers, it’s certainly a topic to be considered and questioned, and progress has been made in some cases.
Once pondering the repercussions this access may pose to a woman’s mobility in society, I delved deeper into the depth of this issue. UN Women considers economic abuse a form of Intimate Partner Violence, and defines such abuse as involving behaviors that “control a woman’s ability to acquire, use and maintain economic resources.” Tactics may range from restricting access to bank accounts, blocking access to social and economic participation, sabotaging education or employment opportunities, and control over day-to-day household financials and spending decisions.
When economic abuse begins it is often an integrated part of a broader abusive dynamic and indicates continued forms abuse will occur; unfortunately, it is one of the most normalized forms of abuse, internalized and reinforced by society. In the US, 1 in 3 women are victims of domestic violence and between 94-99% of survivors have experienced some economic abuse. This abuse may be manifested in many forms that are largely normalized by even an American society, which may leave long-lasting effects both physically and emotionally on the victim.
Reinforced and normalized through my town, the response from the boys in my class was a result of the system they have witnessed countless times throughout their lives. They didn’t intend for their responses to take power away from their future wives, but rather they live behind a system whose norms they do not have reason to question. Their family members have carried out perfectly happy lives, and these were the norms prescribed to the women’s roles, so why did she need access to finances? Their explanations generally resounded with “she didn’t earn the money and she has no need for purchases, so why does she need the access?” I questioned whether cooking, cleaning, and general housekeeping is not sufficiently difficult work, contributing an equivalent household contribution. This brought us to a deeper cultural divide of thought, and ultimately led to a difficult continuation of the argument. Their mindsets are not meant to exhibit abuse over women, but a symptom of their society. The fact remains: inevitably a lack of access to finances delineates a lack of control, security, and freedom.
Fay Jocelyn 