College chief's lecture to address women and financial power
Toolbox
By PATRICK McARDLE Herald Staff - Published: November 18, 2008
BENNINGTON — Southern Vermont College President Karen Gross will speak tonight at the Unitarian Meetinghouse on School Street about what she believes is viewed as the unspeakable: money.
"For many people, even young people and families today, money is the last taboo topic. It's a very hard thing for most people to talk about in families, in professional settings, among friends, among spouses," Gross said.
According to Gross, money is difficult to talk about because it's a "psycho-dynamic property."
"Money is about more than dollars and cents. It's about emotions, it's about moods, it's about sense of self, sense of worth, sense of respect, sense of pride, power, love, security. … That's what people have trouble talking about. It's not the money per se. It's that money is a stand-in for lots of other things," she said.
Gross will be expanding on the topic tonight during her presentation, "Women, Money and the Challenges of Hard Times," hosted by the Bennington chapter of the American Association of University Women.
"What I hope to share with people is how they can understand better what's happening in today's economic marketplace, how they can understand the disparate impacts the economy is having on women … and then lastly I want to provide, I hope, some concrete strategies that both men and women, but particularly women, can employ as they move forward that will help them understand, appreciate and handle the finances of today's world," she said.
With no end in sight to the economic downturn, Gross said, she hopes to empower women to develop strategies and recognize opportunities for the future.
Gross said that although the financial crisis in America and the world is a hot topic, it's not one that's widely understood.
"Everybody now is talking about money. You can't turn very far right now without hearing people talk about money, but we're not all well-equipped to have those conversations and make them productive and thoughtful and nonstressful," she said.
According to Gross, women are disproportionately affected by economic downturns, in part because women generally think about and handle money differently than men.
"Recessions are not good for anybody … but in a bad economy everybody suffers, but women suffer worse," she said.
Even before the economic crisis, Gross did a lot of speaking, thinking and writing about women and money and particularly, women in debt. As a law professor for almost 25 years at the New York Law School, in New York City, Gross' expertise was in consumer finance, indebtedness and the "language of money," with a research specialty in women and money.
Gross said she will use that experience during tonight's presentation to help the audience learn to speak money's "language."
"If you think about money as if it were a foreign language, we're being asked to speak that 'foreign language' all the time right now, day in and day out, television, radio, print media, and even in conversations among friends or in workplaces. But even though we think we understand money's language and seem to speak it to each other, the truth is that we're ill-equipped to speak this 'foreign language,'" she said.
One of the most interesting things about most people's inability to grasp money issues, according to Gross, is that it cuts across educational levels, age, income, race and ethnicities.
"Many other social problems are targeted at vulnerable communities in terms of their incapacities. The trouble with not speaking money's language is that it's not a discriminatory problem. … It's an equal opportunity problem," she said.
Southern Vermont College has already taken steps to bring this kind of practical economic education to its students.
"This is one way among several others we're employing to ensure that our students can graduate and then enter the workforce without suffering any debilitating effects because of their student debt or their credit score or their credit report," Gross said.
Gross' presentation, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7 p.m.
Contact Patrick McArdle at patrick.mcardle@rutlandherald.com.
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