This research was conducted by
Alex Dorman, MNO, Research Fellow
Andrew M. Snyder, BSN, MPH, Research Fellow
Angela M. Maher, MPA, Visiting Research Fellow
Emily Muttillo, MPA, Director of Research & Williamson Family Fellow
Suzanna Thiese, PhD, RN, Research Fellow
Tamikka James-Haygood, MPH, BSRS, R.T. (R ) (ARRT), Research Assistant This research was made
Dr. Sierra Austin-King
Lachandra Baker
Jennifer Battle
Abby Cover
Courtney Falato
Sophia Fifner
Sue Frost
Jennifer Goettemoeller
Claudia Herrington
Grace Hunter
Susan Krohne
Ronnie Marquez-Posey
Leah McDougald
Melissa McHenry
Daphne McKinnie
Kristen Moosmiller
Natalie Moretz
Christine Murry
Melinda Nenning
Kimber Perfect
Letha Pugh
Dana Sims
Shakarra Touray
Kelsie Fields
Kelley Griesmer
Monique Kamara
Drew Kaufman
Maddie McClung
Kennedy Smith
Research regarding women’s lived experiences is critical to creating lasting social change. Even today, there is a shocking dearth of data regarding women’s lives, and there is even less disaggregated data that acknowledges the intersections of women’s life experiences. As Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw has explained: “Intersectionality is a metaphor for understanding the ways that multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage sometimes compound themselves and create obstacles that often are not understood among conventional ways of thinking.” To press for social change, The Women’s Fund must not only make all women visible through data but also disaggregate that data to better explain and highlight the intersectional nuances. This research report is our boldest attempt thus far to achieve those results.
Since our founding in 2001, The Women’s Fund has commissioned six different research reports, including this one. Research is an important pillar of our work because it informs how we focus our grantmaking and advocacy efforts to accomplish social change for women and girls. We also freely provide this research to our Central Ohio community and beyond so that policymakers and advocates may benefit from understanding the business case for investing in women and girls. Bottom line, when women and girls thrive, everyone benefits.
Focusing on women and girls is the fastest way to improve an economy. Because so little data exists to explain the wealth barriers that women face, current economic systems simply ignore barriers that could easily be removed to improve women’s economic welfare. However, there is robust data showing that when women accumulate wealth, they share that wealth with their families and their communities, creating a stronger economy for present and future generations. Though norms say investments in women are “risky,” the exact opposite is true. Investing in women and girls is the least risky investment we can make.
Most importantly, women deserve to be free. This research report demonstrates that wealth is key to achieving that freedom. For women, wealth means much more than income or material possessions. It means they and their families can live safely and thoughtfully. It means they can make decisions that reduce worry and trauma and instead promote confidence and stability for themselves and their loved ones. When they know they have reliable living conditions; adequate healthcare; affordable, quality childcare; the ability to save for unknown emergencies; and more, they thrive. Wealth provides them with opportunities to thrive and give back to the families and communities they love.
This report makes the case for investing in women and girls today to create a brighter tomorrow for all. We hope you will genuinely reflect on the opportunities that this report lays bare and join us in making those opportunities a reality.
Kelley Griesmer President and CEO
Dr. Sierra J. Austin-King Chair of the Board
Moving beyond survival and stability and toward a life of financial abundance is not just about money or income. It is about creating a life with greater autonomy, opportunity, and purpose. This report outlines the factors that lead women in Central Ohio to build wealth, the conditions that prevent wealth building, and the results of having wealth.
This research does not prescribe exact pathways of how to make women feel like they are thriving or how to be financially abundant. It highlights how key outcomes are deeply interconnected. Belief in ability to build wealth differs by levels of thriving, which is correlated with the psychological relationship to financial scarcity, which is correlated to invisible emotional load. This research demonstrates that outcomes are worst for women who are surviving, significantly better for women who are stable, and consistently best for women who are financially abundant.
Surviving
At least one basic need is consistenly not met
Stable
Unable to build wealth and need additional monthly income to feel secure but basic needs are met
Abundant
Able to build wealth and does not need additional monthly income to feel secure and always has basic needs covered
Women who are working stable jobs, who have the necessary support, who are not mentally overburdened with concerns about their families and their finances, and who are not struggling to cover their basic needs are all more likely to be thriving. This research has repeatedly shown that improvements in any of these measures will likely be related to improvements across other metrics. Even if the progress seems incremental, the improvement can be significant.
Ability to build wealth among women in Central Ohio is shaped by financial education, stable employment, supportive networks, and access to essential financial tools.
• Employment plays a critical role in wealth building, but job quality is more important than mere employment status.
• High quality jobs provide both income and support. This research confirms that many women carry a mental load of household and family responsibilities throughout their day including at work.
“It is difficult to build a career and wealth with limited childcare and services supporting special needs children.”
Delaware County, Age 41
• Women in financially unstable situations often work multiple jobs, but these roles tend to be precarious. Structural inequities in wages, hiring, and workplace support make financial security out of reach for many women.
• Policies supporting stable employment, childcare assistance, and income growth such as childcare tax credits and increased wages—are essential to improving financial security for women in the region.
• Women who achieve financial abundance are more likely to have had mentors or parental guidance on money management during their youth. Over eighty percent of financially abundant women reported having a trusted person for financial guidance, compared to just over fifty percent of those in financially precarious situations.
• Access to stabilizing resources enables women to make thoughtful financial decisions instead of operating in crisis mode.
“There needs to be more support for women, and it shouldn’t just be about children. It should be for ALL hard-working women, both young and old, who have dreams they still want to fulfill.”
Franklin County Resident, Age 44
“I think providing more opportunities to learn about smart financial planning in schools will help the next generation of girls and young women build wealth and have a more financially stable future.”
Pickaway County Resident, Age 28
• Women who feel a sense of belonging in their communities are more financially stable, emphasizing the importance of social and professional networks in wealth building.
Several systemic and personal barriers prevent women from building wealth, including financial stress, caregiving responsibilities, discrimination, and lack of representation in decision-making spaces.
• Discrimination presents a significant obstacle, affecting women across all income levels, with varying consequences. Wealthier women may encounter barriers in leadership, investment, and career advancement, while lower-income women often face employment discrimination related to hiring,
“At
this age, I am stuck here. Doing anything to increase my wealth would be a financial risk I am not willing to take.”
Madison County Resident, Age 72
wages, and access to resources that impact their immediate survival.
• Sixty-five percent of women report experiencing discrimination, with BIPOC women facing even higher rates of their opinions being ignored, their qualifications questioned, and their judgment dismissed. Gender-based workplace challenges, including being undervalued and subjected to inappropriate interactions, further hinder career advancement and wealth accumulation. Discrimination in all forms is wholly preventable if we listen to women’s experiences, believe them, and make changes.
• A third of women cannot identify a trusted individual for financial advice, creating a gap in mentorship and financial literacy.
• More than half of women are struggling to manage childcare and other caregiving responsibilities alongside employment.
• Financial barriers also include limited access to retirement planning, investments, and wealth-building strategies.
• Additionally, financial abuse affects 28 percent of women, further impeding long-term security.
• Financial stress is a persistent issue, with 60 percent of women worrying about money and 37 percent unsure if they can meet their basic needs.
• Limited access to resources, particularly for single women and immigrant women complicate their ability to reach financial stability.
“We need to remove systemic barriers that impact Black women’s livelihood – pay equity being an example.”
Franklin County Resident, age 44
“Siento que una mayor igualdad para las mujeres latinas me ayudará a sentirme más segura al construir riqueza. A menudo, la falta de confianza nos impide aprovechar oportunidades que podrían aumentar nuestra riqueza.” (I feel that greater equality for Latina women will help me feel more confident in building wealth. Often, a lack of confidence prevents us from taking advantage of opportunities that could increase our wealth.”)
Franklin County Resident, age 40
“The economy was built on the exclusion of women and people of color. We need to help young women overcome these obstacles for a better future.”
Franklin County Resident Age 24
Women in Central Ohio define wealth as more than financial stability—it represents freedom, empowerment, and the ability to support their families and communities.
• Wealth allows women to move beyond mere survival, creating opportunities for greater autonomy and purpose.
• Many women equate financial abundance with the flexibility to make life choices on their own terms, including the ability to invest, save, and plan for the future.
• Women who achieve financial security report higher life satisfaction, optimism, and purpose. Wealth enables women to contribute to their communities, support their families, and engage in long-term financial planning.
• By addressing systemic barriers and creating policies that support wealth-building, Central Ohio can foster financial empowerment and equity among women, ensuring a future where economic stability and opportunity are accessible to all.
“To be wealthy means being able to discard (for good) a scarcity mindset.”
Franklin County Resident, Age 47
“Wealthy means you are satisfied with your life, the things you have, and the people who share it with you.”
Pickaway County Resident, Age 20
“Wealth is the ability to live, flourish, and thrive in a way that your physical, emotional, and spiritual needs are met. It goes beyond economic accumulation...it's abundant living that positively contributes to self and others.”
Delaware County Resident, Age 47
I
• Women with financial security not only experience greater autonomy and empowerment but also have the opportunity and the responsibility to advocate for systemic changes that ensure economic equity and the opportunity to build wealth for all women.
Income alone does not equal wealth. There are women thriving at low income levels and women just surviving at high income levels. This finding, as well as the breadth of ways in which women in Central Ohio define wealth, leads to a broader understanding of building and sustaining wealth for women. Access to resources, supports from the community, policies that promote financial stability, and equitable employment opportunities are necessary for true economic mobility. The political climate is constantly changing, yet the truths identified through this research ring true for women of Central Ohio across income levels and demographics.
Throughout the past 100 years, the role of women in the workforce has changed dramatically. While important strides have been made towards gender equity, women still experience the ramifications of previous legal and economic barriers, even if they have since been removed. There are also a variety of systemic factors still hindering women’s ability to build wealth that compound for women who have intersecting identities. Below is an outline of key factors that can either accelerate women’s wealth accumulation or pose a significant barrier, as well as actions that can be taken to address the barriers. More information about each can be found in the full literature review on page 97.
Livable wage: A livable hourly wage in Columbus for a single person with no children working full-time is almost $21 an hour, or almost $44,000 a year. While the 2006 Ohio Constitutional Amendment set the minimum wage requirement to adjust with inflation each year, the current wage set in 2025 is barely over half of what is considered to be a living wage.
• Increasing the Ohio minimum wage to $21 would impact approximately 417,000 Central Ohio women working full-time who are likely making below this wage.
Pay equity: Central Ohio women earn on average 78.9 cents to the dollar compared to men, with Black and Latina women earning much less.
• Company-driven or state/local audits could provide employers the opportunity to examine pay equity within their companies.
• Implementing and expanding local policies that prevent employers from asking about salary history and encourage pay transparency can help close the gender pay gap
Debt: Though nationally men have more debt than women, more women report carrying unmanageable levels of debt than men, and over 50% of Black women reported unmanageable debt. Women also have higher college enrollment, and as a result, make up two-thirds of the student loan debt in the U.S. Furthermore, women experience higher rates of medical debt, impacted in part by motherhood and related costs. However, women have higher out-of-pocket costs even when excluding pregnancyrelated services.
• Reducing medical costs, capping out-of-pocket medical expenses, and forgiving medical debt are several actions that could support women disproportionately experiencing medical debt.
Tax policies and credits: Of the Central Ohio women surveyed, most indicated that $1,000 per month or less would change their financial prospects.
• Examining the current Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit would offset the costs of raising children. Both policies were expanded under the American Rescue Plan, and as a result, child poverty dropped to a record low. These tax credits have proven to help ease the financial burden for families with children and a state-supplement or expansion would have a direct impact on Ohio families.
In Franklin County, 41.6% of renters and 19.1% of homeowners live in unaffordable housing (defined as a household spending >30% of income on housing). Furthermore, 59% of individuals facing eviction in Central Ohio were women, and Black and Latina women made up a disproportionately large portion of evictions. Two policies that still have resounding effects on the housing market as it relates to women are: the redlining policies that affected Black individuals’ ability to secure mortgages and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 that allowed women to apply for lines of credit without needing a male co-signer.
• School-year eviction moratoriums and eviction record-sealing are two policies that would help protect families with children from housing instability.
• Building more affordable housing with access to public transportation, programs that teach women about home ownership and maintenance, and expanded access to rent and mortgage support can positively impact women’s ability to build wealth.
Caregiving: Nationally, women make up 60% of caregivers, and a disproportionate amount are people of color. Family caregivers on average spend 26% of their income on caregiving activities, rising to 34% for Black individuals and 47% for Hispanic/Latino individuals. The financial burden of caregiving encompasses not only lost wages but also contributions to retirement, reduced wage growth, and missed opportunities for career progression, all of which compound over time.
Roughly 77% of Ohio workers do not have access to paid family leave, and another 60% do not have access to unpaid leave either.
• A state-wide family leave policy is essential to ensure private and public employees have access to paid time off to care for themselves or their families and reduce the economic hardship they may face as a result.
Childcare: In Ohio, as well as 38 other states, childcare costs more than in-state college tuition. None of the seven Central Ohio counties have a median income high enough for childcare to be “affordable” (defined as making up no more than 7% of family income). The results are even more concerning for single women with children. These women are likely spending 20%-50% of their income on childcare. The cost of childcare is a significant barrier to wealth building for women and families. Ohio’s public reimbursement
rates are the lowest of any state, so low that the federal government mandated that they be raised in 2024.
• Investigating public/private partnerships for childcare, increasing voucher eligibility, companies providing on-site childcare, and offering state-supplemented childcare tax credits are all ways to make childcare more affordable.
This issue is compounded by the lack of childcare infrastructure. In 2022, turnover in the childcare sector was 65% higher than in other jobs. Based on the living wage calculator, an average childcare worker in Columbus makes $15,000 below the living wage for the area.
• Creating career pipelines for the childcare workforce, offering tax-free purchases for childcare centers, free childcare for workers, and increasing pay to a living wage would help attract and retain childcare employees.
Invisible Family Burden: Whether caregivers or not, many women experience a concept called the “invisible load.” This mental load combines cognitive and emotional labor and manifests as invisible, boundaryless, and enduring. It’s the emotional weight of being responsible for the needs of your children, partner, or family combined with your own needs and responsibilities.
• More consistent attention and focus on the invisible load is needed to help the public understand this crucial concept that impacts many women but is hard to define.
• Paid leave, pay equity, affordable childcare, and caregiver resources would all directly reduce the invisible load that many women feel and have positive impacts on all people.
1920
Many women secure the right to vote with the passing of the 19th Amendment. Barriers remain even today for women of color.
1930s
Redlining laws are introduced in Ohio, preventing Black families from accessing mortgages and forcing them to live in neighborhoods without investment.
1940
Marriage laws were in place in several states that banned married women from many workplaces, leading to an overrepresentation in fields like clerical work and education.
1960
The first birth control pill is introduced giving women more reproductive control, and in turn allowing them to join the workforce.
1963
The Equal Pay Act is signed into law promoting equal pay for equal work.
1974
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act is passed banning discrimination based on sex, race, or age in lending practices. Women were able to get increased access to credit cards, car loans, and mortgages.
1978
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed prohibiting discrimination against women for being pregnant or taking time off for childbirth and other pregnancy-related medical events.
Women’s labor force participation peaked during the 1990s, likely due to the increase in women with children continuing in the workforce after giving birth. 1990s
2020
The COVID-19 pandemic sets progress back decades, with women making up the majority of essential workers and experiencing higher rates of unemployment and slower rates of re-entry.
Methodology
StoryCorps is a nonprofit organization that offers a platform for individuals to share their extraordinary personal stories. The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio has partnered with StoryCorps to create a digital archive highlighting the stories of local women, specifically focusing on their experiences with wealth and the barriers they faced in achieving it.
In Central Ohio, women were introduced to StoryCorps and invited to share their experiences during the in-person and virtual listening sessions. After these listening sessions, email invitations were sent to each participant, inviting them to contribute their personal stories relating to their ability to obtain wealth. A total of twelve women took part in the interviews.
The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio placed high importance on centering the voices of women in this research. To reach women, The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio found partners trusted by communities of women whose insights and stories they wanted to elevate. Focus group partners included:
• Central Ohio Women in the Trades
• Central Ohio Worker Center
• Education Foundation for Freedom
• Empowering Latinas Leadership Academy
• Families Flourish
• The Matriots
• The Women’s Center for Economic Opportunity
• Women of Color Retail Alliance
• Black, Out, & Proud
Eleven focus groups were held from July to December 2024, and 126 women shared their experiences and thoughts. Care was taken to employ an equity framework in the focus group experience, with the goal that women who took part would feel they gained as much as they gave.
Focus groups reached women across ages, education levels, income, race, and employment status. The conversations captured the perspectives of women who are low-income, immigrants, work in a trade, have run for office, are entrepreneurs, and/or a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Throughout the report, their comments and responses to open-ended questions from the survey are included.
A comprehensive survey was developed to create rich and insightful data around the experiences of women in Central Ohio. The survey was voluntary and used scales and open-ended questions to ask women to share their opinions and experiences on topics such as wellbeing, financial situations, employment experiences, and barriers to wealth building. The survey incorporated validated research scales as well that were public use, or permission was granted by their original authors:
• The Brief Inventory of Thriving (Su, Tay, & Diener, 2014)62
• The Psychological Inventory of Financial Scarcity (van Dijk, van der Werf, & van Dillen, 2022)63
• The Invisible Family Load Scale (Wayne, Mills, Wang, Matthews, & Whitman, 2023)64
• The MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status (Adler, Epel, Castellazzo, & Ickovics, 2000)65
The distribution plan was comprehensive and multipronged. Two randomized mailings of surveys were sent to addresses in Delaware, Fairfield, Franklin, Licking, Madison, Pickaway, and Union Counties. Names and addresses were randomly selected from the most recently available county voting records. To identify women to send the survey to, NamSor, a tool used to predict gender based on a name and region, was used. Any randomly drawn names and addresses that had a greater than 50 percent chance of belonging to a woman was included. The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio also promoted the survey through their social media and primary channels of communication and reached out to over fifty partners in the region for assistance distributing the survey. Finally, the Community Research Institute (CRI) at Baldin Wallace University was partnered with to deliver a truncated version of the survey to their dedicated panels of women in the region. CRI was especially helpful in connecting with counties with smaller populations such as Pickaway, Madison, and Union Counties. These women received the survey either via phone call or text and answered the key and demographic questions from the survey.
After filtering out anyone who did not meet the inclusion criteria of 1) identifying as a woman 2) being 18 or older, and 3) living in Delaware, Fairfield, Franklin, Licking, Madison, Pickaway, or Union County, the final sample totaled 3,006 women. In all, 1,231 women completed the full survey, and 1,775 women completed the truncated Community Research Institute survey. Demographically, the sample largely mirrored the demographic composition of the region.
To further adjust the sample to match with the demographics of the region, any data collected outside of CRI’s data was weighted using 28 categories of age and income, using 5-year 2023
American Community Survey data. With a sample this large and
representative of women in the region, meaningful statistical analyses could be performed to explore if responses differed significantly among distinct groups of women, or if outcomes were correlated. This research used Analysis of Variance tests (ANOVA), independent sample t-tests, Welch’s t-tests, when necessary, Chi-squared tests, and Pearson correlation coefficient tests. Significance was determined by a p-value of less than .05, a common social research standard.
From paychecks to policy, the key levers that increase economic security
Building wealth is essential for women to gain financial independence, security, and long-term stability in a world where systemic barriers often limit economic opportunities. By accumulating wealth, women gain greater control over their lives and the ability to invest in their futures and communities. Understanding the conditions necessary to support women in wealth-building—such as access to education, fair wages, investment opportunities, and financial literacy—is crucial for fostering economic equity and empowerment.
Women in Central Ohio have various definitions of wealth that extend far beyond the financial realm. In focus groups and through the survey, they shared a comprehensive and nuanced view of wealth. When asked “what does wealth mean to you?” women created a rich and complex picture of what wealth means to them as individuals and as a community.
Women were clear that wealth is about more than just finances. Wealth is also about connection and community, equity and empowerment, health and wellbeing, and freedom and abundance. These dimensions of wealth are the foundation of this report.
Financially Abundant
Able to Build Wealth
Do Not Require Additional Monthly Income to Feel
Financially Secure
Always Had Basic Needs Covered
Unable to Build Wealth
Need Additional Monthly Income to Feel Secure
Basic Needs Met
At Least One Basic Meet Was Always Not Met
Just as wealth is not one thing, it does not originate from one thing. There are multiple facets of women’s lives that contribute to building wealth. The wealth of women in Central Ohio is not solely related to their income or assets. Level of abundance groups were created to compare those who view themselves as financially abundant, stable, and surviving.
Basic needs were defined as respondents reporting that they “always” had enough financial resources to: buy the food their household needs; pay for the housing/rent costs; pay the utility bills; purchase the medications their household needs; and pay the medical bills. Creating three comparison groups allowed for an analysis of the ways in which these women differed; specifically seeking answers to the question “what sets these women apart?”
Women in Central Ohio rely on each other and their communities to both provide and receive the support that leads to wealth of relationships and financial gain.
In focus groups, women shared their need for community, professional networks, and workplace support to thrive. They need to hear each other’s stories of both failures and successes. Women shared they do not often discuss money, the result being that many women do not feel comfortable and confident with financial matters. Discussing finances openly and learning from each other can help lead women to wealth. The movement towards pay transparency is one example of how community connections can lead to a change in both public perception and policy.
Women cited support networks—both personal and professional—as key to their achievements. Mentors are helpful on the journey. As one woman put it, “Find your people.” Most of the women in the trades had someone directly invite them into a career in the trades.
During a focus group, one woman shared a common story, “When you’re busy, you actually start to lose access to community, which is ironic given the importance of community.” Building on that idea, a woman shared, “When I needed to job search recently, I didn’t have the same natural connections I used to have, which was challenging for access to career opportunities.”
One woman shared a deeply personal perspective on wealth, describing it as not just financial success but also the richness of human relationships and knowledge. She highlighted the importance of building a network of friends, family, and colleagues who inspire and support one another.
Wealth, to her, includes access to valuable resources, connections, and the ability to make choices for her family’s future. She emphasized the significance of human connection over technology and the role of wisdom in navigating the world. She also discussed her approach to parenting, particularly how she teaches her children about finances, long-term planning, and critical thinking. She stressed the importance of assessing the value of relationships and the impact they have on personal growth, advising her children to be mindful of the people they surround themselves with.
Advice and guidance offered through mentorship can provide a solid foundation of knowledge to launch one’s efforts to build wealth. Parents or caregivers are often a child’s first mentor when it comes to finances. Just under half of women (48 percent) said their parents taught them about things related to money such as credit scores, saving for retirement, and interest. Forty-nine percent of women agreed that growing up, talking about money was a welcome topic of conversation in their family. Learning the basics of finances at an early age introduces concepts gradually and with repetition. This allows young women to begin their wealth journey prior to having to worry about day-to-day financial decision making.
Women who consider themselves financially abundant were more likely to have had a parent or other mentor teach them about things related to money in their youth. It appears likely that early financial education has a long-term impact on wealth.
Agreed that their parents taught them about things related to money
Agreed that a mentor other than their parents taught them about things related to money
Working with a financial planner provides women support to strategize their financial well-being and maximize opportunities to build wealth. Fortyfive percent of all women surveyed have had the opportunity to work with a financial planner. Other non-professionalized supports can also be valuable to plan for the future; two thirds of all women surveyed indicated they have someone they trust to ask questions about their personal finances. Yet when it came to having someone they could turn to with financial questions, the three groups were significantly different from each other.
Agreed that I have someone I trust who I can turn to when I have questions related to finances and financial planning
The differences were stark, with only 54 percent of the surviving group having someone they trust, compared to 83 percent of the abundant group. Having a trusted person to seek financial guidance appears to lead to greater financial abundance.
Personal relationships have the potential to bring stability or chaos into a woman’s ability to build wealth. Three out of four women in Central Ohio indicate they are satisfied with their personal relationships. Over 80 percent of women who currently have a spouse or partner said that being in a relationship is helpful, with over 60 percent indicating it is very helpful and 40 percent indicating a relationship is moderately helpful. A high level of satisfaction in relationships allows women to feel supported in a variety of ways, including in wealth building and management of personal finances. Relationships with two individuals contributing income tend to be financially beneficial. Support can also come from family and friends and in ways that directly affect women’s ability to maintain financial stability. Eleven percent of the women surveyed indicated they receive financial support from family or friends. The most common type of support included housing costs like rent, mortgage, and food. Women who seek support are typically using that support to cover the basic needs of their households.
A sense of belonging has positive outcomes in multiple areas of life that influence a woman’s ability to build wealth including mental health, physical health, purpose and meaning, and productivity. In Central Ohio, 60 percent of women feel a sense of belonging within their community. For these women, their sense of community is something they treasure. When asked on the survey what they are proud of in their life, some of the comments women shared included “being connected to community and being seen and received constantly,” and “the way I have been able to begin and cultivate so many wonderful friendships and a strong community.”
This feeling of connection to one’s community was experienced differently by women in various levels of financial abundance.
Less than half of the women in the surviving group felt a sense of belonging in their communities, a rate that was significantly lower than the stable group and the abundant group.
The difference between the abundant and the stable samples was approaching statistical significance.
I feel a sense of belonging to my community
Agreed with feeling a sense of belonging in their community
A feeling of belonging is built on interactions with community members and connections to both individuals and groups. Being welcomed by members into groups fosters a sense of belonging and leads women to experience the wealth of being a part of a community. Volunteering is the most common type of engagement women in Central Ohio take part in followed by participation in local community Facebook groups.
Volunteering is the most common type of
Faith-based Engagement (Going to Church, Mosque, etc)
Contact Your Representative (Local, State, or Federal)
Attend Community Meetings/Block Clubs
Youth Organizations (Scouts, 4H, Youth Sports)
Attend City Council Meetings or Zoning Hearings
Other Serve on the Parent Teachers Organization
Engage in Clubs Like Kiwanis or the Lions Club
Equity fuels economic growth, innovation, and social wellbeing. When women have equitable access to opportunities, entire communities thrive.
According to focus group participants, having greater equity in the workplace would create an environment where women could thrive. More women in leadership, allies in leadership, supportive workplace policies, and pay equity benefit women. A woman who works in the trades said, “We need a voice” and reported that her job separates women from each other and does not allow them to communicate while on the job.
When women are in environments where equity and empowerment are valued, they develop selfconfidence and speak up and advocate for themselves in the workplace. Self-confidence also plays a role in entrepreneurship. A strong belief in oneself leads to taking well measured risks to build wealth such as launching businesses which many women in focus groups identified as an avenue to wealth.
Pursuing education is one strategy to lead to more empowerment. Some immigrant women report being better off because their parents supported their education. Having strong financial literacy skills would also empower women. Working with a financial advisor can help women especially in planning for retirement. Several women, through the focus groups and survey, pointed out that women feel like they need education to be confident, while men will just make decisions with or without the education to back it up. In addition to equity in the workplace, women in focus groups shared that equalized gender roles for household responsibilities would help women.
One woman shared her journey of personal and professional growth. Born and raised in Guinea Bissau, a small, impoverished country in West Africa, she grew up in an environment where education for girls was not prioritized. However, her parents valued education, which played a pivotal role in shaping her future.
She earned a Fulbright scholarship from USAID, which enabled her to study in the United States, where she completed her undergraduate and master’s degrees in business administration and finance. After almost 18 years in the banking industry, she founded her own nonprofit organization, inspired by her own experiences and the belief that education can be a powerful tool to break the cycle of poverty, particularly for girls. Her personal journey, from being the first in her family to earn a college degree to establishing a mentoring program, reflects her commitment to empowering young girls through education.
Respect and appreciation build a foundation of trust and good will that can lead to wealth building. Over 90 percent of women in Central Ohio indicated there are people who appreciate them as a person. Feeling that your efforts are not going unnoticed reinforces a willingness to continue those efforts.
Within the workplace, women are more likely to feel respected by their coworkers than their supervisors. Working in an environment where you feel respected builds confidence and connections to the workplace. Feeling respected acts as a protective factor in maintaining stable employment.
8
Most women agree that they feel appreciated as a person
9
Most women feel respected by coworkers; less feel respected by their bosses
Disagree Unsure Agree
Unsure 6%
Disagree 3%
Agree 91%
While high rates of comfort with short-term financial management tools are encouraging, it is worth noting that women who are financially abundant report greater levels of comfort with these tools compared to women who are not financially abundant.
Especially significant are the differences in comfort with using a credit card (a difference of 23 percent) and online banking (a difference of 9 percent), two functions that are integral to modern money management.
Forty-six percent of women reported needing to find a way to balance managing household responsibilities with work. Having some control over the finances can be helpful in achieving balance.
Women who are comfortable interacting with short term financial management tools
abundant
Using and Managing Credit Card Using a Checkbook
Using a Money Transfer Service Like Venmo, CashApp, Paypal, and/or Zelle
Most women have some involvement in the management of their finances, with about 46 percent doing most of the management and a third of women sharing management responsibilities evenly with a partner. Holding management responsibilities of household finances allows women the ability to direct household resources as needed.
Women in partnerships are more likely to evenly share long-term financial decision making, compared to day-to-day financial decision making. The women who responded to the survey were more likely to be managing both the day-to-day and long-term finances than their partners.
Sole or shared management of finances results in women feeling significantly more in control when it comes to their financial situation; seventy-five percent reported feeling in control, compared to 65 percent of women whose partners mostly managed the finances. Two thirds of women feel they can manage their finances properly, and 78 percent do not feel powerless when they think about their financial situation.
Feelings of empowerment over their financial situation coincide with feelings of purpose and value.
Seventy percent of women report having a clear sense of purpose. Most women (77 percent) feel that what they do in life is valuable and worthwhile. Eighty-two percent feel they can succeed if they put their mind to it.
Decisions
Most women feel what they do in life is valuable and worthwhile
Disagree: 6% Neither Agree Nor Disagree: 17% Strongly Agree: 26% Strongly Disagree: 1%
Agree: 51%
In focus groups, women cited comprehensive healthcare as something that would help them thrive. One woman put it starkly,
“To not die in childbirth is what women need to thrive.”
Her comment amplifies the many women who brought up how pregnancy affects the health of women, but even without pregnancy, women’s healthcare needs are different and unaddressed.
Many women stressed the importance of family planning in growing wealth. Women in Central Ohio would invest in programs around sexual education, relationship education, free birth control, and women’s health clinics to build a more financially stable future for girls and young women.
For women with children, family-friendly leave policies and parental leave policies would help them. They also need access to affordable childcare.
14
Access to affordable, quality healthcare directly affects women’s physical, mental, and social wellbeing. Most women found that purchasing medications for their household was less challenging than affording the medical bills of their household. Being able to afford household medical costs reduces barriers to positive health outcomes. Most working-age individuals receive healthcare through their employer, indicating that it is essential for businesses to offer adequate, affordable health insurance. Twothirds of women surveyed felt that their employer provided adequate healthcare coverage. Around onefifth disagreed that their employer provided adequate coverage.
Paying for medications is less challenging than paying for medical bills
Figure 15
Two-thirds of employed women indicate their jobs provide adequate health care coverage
Disagree: 22%
Agree: 67%
Neither Agree Nor Disagree: 11%
Senior leadership roles and high-paying careers often require years of uninterrupted professional experience. Women who can find reliable support in their caregiving responsibilities can reduce interruptions to career aspirations.
#
Childcare arrangements for children under 5
Nationally, 60 percent of caretakers are women, with women of color being overrepresented. My Partner/Spouse Primarily Watches Them My Partner And I Equally Take Turns Watching Them
Caregiving can include caring for children or adults who need assistance with activities of daily living.
In the survey conducted, 45 percent of women who were working or looking for work indicated they must balance caregiving responsibilities with work.
Fifty-one percent of women also report having to balance managing childcare responsibilities with work. For women with children under five years of age, childcare centers are the most utilized childcare arrangement. This is then followed by 29 percent reporting that the children are primarily watched by the survey taker. Of this group of women who are shouldering the primary responsibility of watching their children under five, 40 percent of them are still working in some capacity. It is common for women to have to reduce their work hours to assume caretaking responsibilities. Among the women in the survey, about half reported the need to reduce their work hours to take care of older family members as a barrier to their ability to build wealth, and 54 percent reported the same for reducing hours to take care of children.
Not surprisingly, most women surveyed identified increased income as leading to wealth. Women mentioned getting a job, advancing in their career, cash assistance, raises, and benefits, as well as increasing their savings, including for retirement, as contributing to wealth. Given the costs of education, many women identified loan forgiveness as something that would help them advance.
Women who have experiential wisdom would advise other women, when possible, to take advantage of employer benefits, such as 401K matching and to diversify their income streams. Access to resources in general, but specifically affordable housing, would help women build wealth. Immigrant women reported having homes in the countries from which they emigrated but not being able to have one here. Single mothers who have moved to more well-off areas of Columbus reported that resources they used to rely on were no longer available in their new communities, resulting in financial losses overall, and revealing the complexities of accessing resources. Many women are concerned about the rising culture of consumerism and how that affects their children’s economic prospects.
Employment is a significant way for individuals to build wealth. Being employed provides income via salary, but also in retirement contributions and benefits like health insurance. Over half of women surveyed are employed full-time and 17 percent are employed part-time. Eight percent of respondents were unemployed but looking for work, while another four percent were unemployed but not looking.
Status Figure 17
The remaining 16 percent were either retired (nine percent) or unable to work due to disability (seven percent).
Most women surveyed are also working in salaried positions. Salaried positions often provide more financial stability than hourly positions, typically having a set pay and hourly schedule. Salaried positions generally include employee benefits, such as retirement contributions and employersponsored health insurance.
Working remotely peaked for both men and women during the pandemic, but women have remained in a remote capacity at higher levels than men. This may be due to the disproportionately divided domestic tasks that women face, including childcare. Nearly half of women surveyed indicated that their workplace offers remote or work from home options. Many women reported that a hybrid or remote work environment allows for a healthier work/life balance.
Among
the women who were working, most worked only one job; one in five reported working multiple jobs.
Working multiple jobs might be a result of financial necessity or pursuing a passion. A lack of full-time opportunities, a non-livable wage, the need to save for a big purchase, or to pay off substantial amounts of debt may be reasons that women feel they need more income. Additionally, 35 percent of women reported supplementing their income outside of their employment. Reselling or upcycling goods, selling their crafts/other trades locally or online, and babysitting were the most common ways women supplemented their income.
18
More women are working in salaried positions than hourly positions
19
Nearly half of women surveyed indicated that their workplace offers remote or hybrid options
20
20% of women work more than one job
Employment is a pathway that leads to wealth. The opportunities for gainful and fulfilling employment are not always readily available, regardless of hard work. There is evidence for this in comparing the employment rates of the financially abundant group to the rates of the non-financially abundant group. Both groups of women were working at nearly identical rates; 72 percent of the abundant group and 71 percent of the non-financially abundant. However, four in ten women (40 percent) in the non-financially abundant were employed in “precarious work,” nearly twice the rate of women in the abundant group (21 percent), a significant difference. Precarious work is defined as “uncertain, unstable and insecure work in which workers, as opposed to businesses or the government, bear the risks associated with work and receive limited social benefits and statutory protections.”66
For this research, a woman was defined as having precarious work if she endorsed any of the following items:
• I am treated like I am replaceable
• I am worried about losing my job
• I am not offered a consistent number of work hours each week
• I might get fired if I don’t meet strict quotas
Women in the non-financially abundant group were also significantly more likely to be working multiple jobs (21 percent) than women in the abundant group (6 percent).
Of the women who were employed, seventy-one percent agreed that they were satisfied with their job. Most women said that they are offered consistent work hours, likely due to most surveyed women being salaried, but fewer women feel that their job fits their situation well and that their job has flexible
work options. Flexible work options allow employees to balance personal and professional needs. Since women primarily bear the brunt of caretaking and childcare, flexible work options are beneficial.
More women in Central Ohio feel respected by their coworkers than by their supervisors and around 75 percent felt that they could be themselves at work
Figure 22 Not Financially Abundant Financially Abundant
Percent of employed women who agree with the following experiences
I Am Satisfied With My Job
I Feel Respected By My Coworkers
I Can Be Myself At Work
My Feedback At Work Is Accepted And Appreciated
I Feel Respected By My Boss/Supervisor
I Am Offered A Consistent Amount Of Work Hours Each Week
My Job Fits My Situation Well
My Job Offers Flexible Work Options
My Job Provides Adequate Vacation/Personal Time
My Job Provides Adequate Health CareCoverage
My Job Pays Me Fairly
While it is generally encouraging that most employed women are satisfied with their jobs, there are significant differences in these experiences by level of financial abundance. When comparing the eleven work experiences above between financially abundant women and the non-financially abundant group, the results were definitive and the differences stark. On all items women in the non-financially abundant group reported significantly worse outcomes than the financially abundant group.
The data illustrate that women who feel respected, accepted, and appreciated are more financially abundant. Women who were more likely to be satisfied, respected, and able to be themselves work jobs that are more likely to be flexible, provide adequate time off, and fit women’s situations well. All these attributes lead to financial abundance. Importantly, just 18 percent of women in the financially abundant group felt like their jobs did not pay fairly, and only 14 percent felt they were not receiving adequate health care coverage, compared to 44 percent and 38 percent respectively for the non-financially abundant group. Women who are paid fairly, treated fairly, and offered flexibility become stable employees who advance in their careers and compensation, leading to wealth.
It should be stressed that being employed does not equate with wealth or financial abundance. Women in the non-abundant and abundant groups worked at similar rates. In fact, women in the non-abundant group were far
more likely to be working multiple jobs than the abundant sample. But the kinds of jobs the women in the non-abundant group were working were on average more precarious.
Precarious employment should not be the standard, and the pathway to financial abundance is clearly linked to more stable employment options.
Figure 23
Better pay is the top priority for women when searching for a new job
Employed and unemployed women looking for new work were asked to pick their top three priorities in a new job. At the top of the list was better pay. Less than a third of women felt that job benefits like flexibility, remote/hybrid work, and vacation time were top priorities when job searching. Around 40 percent of women prioritized opportunities for growth.
Women are least familiar with “protected classes” and most familiar with laws against discrimination
Of the Central Ohio women surveyed, 58 percent indicated that they had personally been a victim of discrimination because of their gender.
29 percent reported having been or believing they will be discriminated against as a barrier to employment. While some women are familiar with protected classes, like race and gender, more are familiar with laws against discrimination.
Most surveyed women have a household income between $30,000 and $75,000. Throughout Central Ohio, the median income hovers around $50,000, except for Delaware where it is above $70,000.
The relationship between income and level of abundance is largely uncomplicated. The women who make up the abundant group are women who 1) believe they can build wealth 2) need no extra money every month to feel fully financially stable, and 3) always have their basic needs within their
Figure 26
Figure 25
Most women are in households earning between $30,000 and $75,000
Household income by level of abundance (full survey)
Not financially abundant Financially abundant
Household income by level of abundance (non-CRI respondents)
Between $100,000 And $150,000
Over $150,000
households met. In this regard, it is expected that the average household income amongst these women is significantly higher than the rest of the sample.
Despite the clear differences in household income on average, there are notable observations to be made. There are sizable proportions of women who are not financially abundant across all levels of household income (18 percent with household incomes above $100,000). Similarly, there are financially abundant women across all income levels. For those with household incomes of less than $30,000, 21% would consider themselves financially abundant. It was in part due to these nuances, as well as the breadth of ways in which women in Central Ohio define wealth, that income was not the sole metric of financial abundance.
Most women have enough money for the things they need Agree Disagree Neither agree nor disagree
A similar pattern holds with household income at the further defined levels of abundance: surviving; stable; and abundant.
In these groups, financially abundant is defined the same. However, stable is defined as someone who has their basic needs met but feels like they need more money at the end of every month to feel fully stable and/or doesn’t feel like they can build wealth. Surviving is defined by someone whose basic needs are not always met. There are expected significant differences among all three levels as it related to income, but again there are levels of abundance represented across all income levels, and even amongst the highest income levels there are women who are stable or surviving.
Almost half of women considered to be financially surviving have household incomes below $50,000 and two-thirds of women who are financially surviving have household incomes below $75,000. Financial stability seems to increase as household incomes increase.
How much additional money would you need to feel financially secure?
$501 - $600
$601 - $700
$701 - $800
$801 - $900
$901 - $1000
In the household income analysis of level of abundance, the percent of women who are “abundant” looks different in the non-abundant/abundant chart (figure 26) compared to the surviving/stable/abundant chart (figure 27) The differences are a result of the creation of a third group and differences in the data sets.
Figure 30
Women often worry about money, but for most it is not an overwhelming worry
Disagree
Neither agree nor disagree
Agree
Figure 31
Most, but not all, women feel they have control over their finances
Agree
Neither agree nor disagree
Disagree
I Am Constantly Wondering Whether I Have Enough Money
Half of women required an additional $500 or less a month to feel financially secure. Ten percent required an additional $1,000 or more to feel financially secure.
Interestingly, a third of women agreed that they did not have enough money, but most are able to cover their bills and other necessities. Policies like increasing childcare voucher eligibility, expanding child or income tax credits, and increasing the minimum wage to be livable would put some dollars into the pockets of women who need it the most.
Two thirds of women indicate they can manage their finances properly. Thirty-two percent would be prepared to handle a major unexpected expense such as a large medical bill or an emergency home
Figure 32
While most women are able to plan for the future, between 20-30% can only consider the present
I Am Only Focusing On What I Have To Pay At This Moment Rather Than My Future Expenses I Take Future Expenses Into Account
Because Of My Financial Situation, I Live From Day To Day
repair. The ability to manage finances properly creates a level of wealth that reduces financial emergencies.
While 60% of women said they often worry about money, 70% reported that finances did not prevent them from thinking about other things. These numbers may seem contradictory at first, yet this may show the added responsibilities and worries that women must balance—such as family obligations, household tasks, and their careers—take precedence over financial worries.
Most women can take future expenses into account, but 30 percent of women cannot think about future expenses. One in five women can only live day-today.
33
Who are the women with the highest financial stress? Highest financial stress quartile Lower stress quartiles
Concerns about money and financial security can lead to psychological strain and negatively affect one’s life. The Psychological Inventory of Financial Scarcity is a validated scale that measures four aspects of strain across 12 questions: shortage of money; lack of control; rumination and worry; and short-term focus. A total score of psychological inventory of financial scarcity is developed by averaging respondent answers to those 12 questions. To glean insight about which women are experiencing the most severe financial stress in Central Ohio, the top quartile of women with the highest levels of psychological stress about their finances are compared to the rest of the sample.
Women who are experiencing the most psychological stress around their finances were more likely to be younger, have lower annual household incomes, and not own their own homes. Demographically, a significantly greater proportion of these women belonged to marginalized groups.
Roughly a third (32 percent) of this high financial stress group were Black, Indigenous, or people of color, and 16 percent identified their sexual orientation as lesbian or bisexual.
These proportions were around double that of the lower stress quartiles (15 percent and 9 percent, respectively). Seven in ten of the women in this high stress group reported having a disability, chronic condition, or health challenge. Over half (53 percent) were employed in precarious jobs (jobs marked by their instability), and 67 percent reported receiving inadequate wages.
These differences in outcomes are inherently linked to one another; poor wages often equate to lower household incomes, which may be related to not being able to own a home. Level of stress around finances is also linked to wellbeing; only 53 percent of women in the high financial stress group felt that their lives were going well.
Only 50 percent of women in the high financial stress group were optimistic about their futures, while 81 percent of the women in the lower financial stress group were optimistic.
Wealth is often defined as an inventory of an individual’s assets minus their debts. Debts can stem from credit through loans or through unpaid bills. The gender wage gap along with the fact that women’s careers are more likely to be interrupted for caregiving may mean that the impact of debt is more substantial in women’s lives. If given an extra $1,000 dollars each month, 39 percent of surveyed women indicated they would use some or all those funds to pay down debt, demonstrating that some women are overburdened with debt. A lack of debt frees up resources for avenues of wealth building.
Basic needs are often the first line item in the household budget for the month and are likely the first taken care of. Most women were always or sometimes able to afford basic needs such as food, utilities, and medications. Transportation, housing costs, and medical bills were more of an issue for Central Ohio women.
34
Most women are able to afford basic needs
Building financial wealth relies on the ability to save or invest money after all expenses are taken care of. Wealth allows individuals to prepare for the future and help with expenses during unexpected hardships. Many women shared this definition of wealth.
They phrased it as “Having money above and beyond just being able to pay for essentials. Being able to be strategic with money with savings and investments,” and “Having the financial means to have no debt (mortgage, car) and the ability to have savings to pay for emergency household appliances. Once financially free, the ability to invest.”
Fifty-one percent of women reported they can build wealth at this point in their lives. Additionally, 69 percent of women report they have money left over at the end of the month; 22 percent always have enough money, 19 percent often have money, and 27 percent sometimes have enough money. One woman who felt she could build wealth expressed gratitude “I am fortunate. I feel thankful to be where I am.”
Savings accounts and investments are common vehicles for building wealth.
35
Most women are in a better financial situation than their mother was at their current age
Fifty-four percent of women can make contributions to savings accounts or investments at least some of the time. About a quarter of women have no problems saving money, and another quarter only report minor problems with saving money.
Fifty-four percent feel comfortable with retirement accounts including 401Ks, 403Bs, and Roth IRAs, but only 30 percent feel comfortable with investments and stocks.
Different generations of women face unique issues when building wealth and achieving financial stability. World events, inflation rates, and generational wealth are all significant factors in the ability to build wealth. Fifty-five percent of women agreed that they are in a better financial situation than
their mother was at their current age. Conversely, almost 30 percent disagree with this statement. The way your parents handle money can be a crucial factor in how you handle money. For the 55 percent of women who felt they are in a better financial situation, generational wealth may have set them up for better financial success or they were able to learn from how their parents handled their money.
One woman discussed her evolving understanding of wealth, particularly how it relates to financial literacy, personal growth, and legacy-building. Growing up with a mother who was still learning about managing money, she faced financial challenges and learned through trial and error. Over time, she has sought resources such as financial advisors and organizations like “Keys to Black Wealth” to deepen her understanding of wealthbuilding. She also emphasized the importance of mental, emotional, and spiritual wealth, noting that she has introduced her son to therapy to improve his communication skills and emotional intelligence. Additionally, she aims to teach him financial literacy and spiritual grounding, with a focus on enduring life’s challenges. Despite her progress, she acknowledges that they still have much to learn about wealth, particularly in managing her finances, unlearning old habits, and making smarter spending decisions. she recognizes the importance of continuous growth and the need for access to resources, which often require networking and intentional seeking.
Three out of four women are optimistic about their futures. Only half believe that they will earn more money in the next year, which indicates that there may be more to a positive future outlook than money.
Forty-two percent of women believe that they will likely be able to retire when they want to (a rate that shrinks to 36 percent when looking at women under the age of 65). With nearly half of women in the sample not being comfortable with retirement accounts, this may lead women to feeling like they cannot retire when they want to. Women are also more likely to be caretakers and thus bear a disproportionate financial burden. Lost wages also include lost retirement contributions, which may prolong the age of retirement. Missed promotional opportunities and lower pay due to caregiving may also prolong the age of retirement, as women feel they must earn more to be able to leave their careers.
Less than half of women believe they will be able to retire when they want to
Not Sure
Women were asked to think about a ten-rung ladder as a representation of where people stand in the United States. At the top of the ladder are the people who are the best off, and at the bottom of the ladder are the people who are the worst off. Women were then asked to place themselves on this ladder, compared to other women in the United States. This tool is called the MacArthur Ladder and is a way to measure Subjective Social Status. On average, women in Central Ohio largely placed themselves in the middle rungs, with the mean score being 5.6, or between the ‘fifth and sixth rungs’ of the ladder.
Different groups of women saw their subjective socially status differently, with the greatest differences found in level of household income and education. Figure 37
While there are clearly factors that lead to wealth-building for women, there are also significant barriers that continue to hinder women’s ability to move towards financial growth and stability. Systemic challenges such as the gender pay gap, limited access to capital for female entrepreneurs, and the disproportionate burden of caregiving responsibilities make it harder for women to accumulate and sustain wealth. Additionally, women often face biases in the workplace, underrepresentation in highpaying industries, and a lack of tailored financial education, all of which contribute to slow wealth accumulation. Understanding these barriers is crucial to developing solutions that empower women to build and sustain wealth.
The Barriers Women Face
Women named lack of representation in professional spaces—particularly in higher levels of employment—as a barrier to achieving wealth. Lack of women, particularly women of color, in positions of leadership leads to fewer role models for women looking to advance. Lack of representation also means that the perspectives of women are not heard in decision-making spaces. Women benefit from other women as mentors in their careers. One woman shared, “Having a mentor would be invaluable. Many people struggle due to a lack of experience and planning, which is something greatly needed in the community.” A lack of representation limits the pool of mentors to help other women. Women who wish to start to their own business seek resources and start-up support.
Women with a high level of concern for family needs do not have the time or mental space to devote to nurturing community connections. The survey shows that for many women in Central Ohio, worrying about their family’s needs, goals, and wellbeing occupies a substantial amount of their time. Amongst women who were married or living with their partner, about 40 percent feel uneasy, 33 percent feel troubled, and 25 percent feel distressed at least some of the time in the past month. These feelings highlight the pressure women face when trying to care for their families. This stress can make it harder for them to focus on building wealth, saving money, or working toward their own financial goals. Instead, they often choose to put their family’s needs first, which can hold them back financially.
How partnered women feel about their family’s needs, goals, activities, resonsibilities and wellbeing
An overwhelming majority of partnered women, 88 percent, report that they spent a substantial amount of time thinking about their family’s needs, goals, activities, responsibilities, and overall wellbeing in the last month.
Additionally, 87 percent dedicated time to actively making plans to address these needs, while 80 percent regularly find themselves processing information related to their family’s circumstances.
A majority of partnered women spend time thinking about processing information related to their family’s needs Figure 39
These findings highlight the mental and emotional labor women take on to manage and support their families, a labor that is often invisible to the people around them and not fully recognized by the women burdened by it. Managing the needs of a household and the wellbeing of one’s family is not inherently a bad thing, but the constant focus on family matters can limit the time and energy women can focus on personal financial growth, career development, or wealth-building opportunities. This is especially true when this mental and emotional labor is primarily shouldered by only one member of a partnership. The data underscores how deeply family responsibilities shape women’s daily lives and their ability to pursue long-term financial security.
Sixty percent of women report that they often worry about money, reflecting the financial stress many experience daily. Thirty-seven percent of women say they are constantly questioning whether they have enough money to meet their needs, while 14 percent find it difficult to focus on anything other than their financial situation.
These insights reveal how financial concerns dominate the thoughts of many women, creating a persistent mental burden. Such stress can affect their ability to plan for the future, make financial decisions, and pursue opportunities to build wealth. These findings highlight the ongoing challenges women face in achieving financial security and stability in Central Ohio.
One in seven women find it difficult to focus on anything other than their financial situation.
One in three women report having been the only woman on a work team at some point in their careers. This lack of representation not only highlights the challenges women face in male dominated workplaces but also underscores the isolation women may feel in professional settings. One woman who works in a trade described her experience being trained on the job. “I had to watch and learn instead of him training me. He said he did not want me to take his job, so he was not going to train me. It’s hard to
progress.” Another woman shared “What is frustrating as a girl in the trades is the cliquey boys club. They don’t want to include you. Keep us at arm’s length. You will never be one of them.”
Without peers or role models who share their experiences, women often miss out on mentorship opportunities that are critical for career growth, skills development, and networking. This can lead to fewer promotions, limited access to leadership roles, and smaller earnings over time.
The absence of representation and mentors creates a cycle where women struggle to advance professionally, maintaining the gender wealth gap and making it harder to achieve long-term financial security.
One woman reflected on the challenges she faced in the nonprofit sector, particularly in relation to her background and expectations around wealth. Coming from a middle-class family in the South, she moved at 18 with a partner but found it difficult to break into management positions, despite having a degree in behavioral neuroscience and seven years of experience. This lack of advancement led her to pursue a master’s in social work. She mentioned financial barriers and expressed frustration that a bachelor’s degree and work experience aren’t enough to secure higher-level roles in the field. She also emphasized the impact of wealth and access on career progression.
One third of women cannot identify a person they trust in their lives that they could ask questions about finances and financial planning.
This lack of support can leave women feeling isolated and less equipped to make informed financial decisions. Furthermore, more than half of women (53 percent) have never worked with a financial planner, highlighting a significant gap in access to professional financial guidance.
This lack of support is exacerbated in the subsamples of women who are surviving (women who don’t always have one or more of their basic household needs met) and stable (women who have their basic household needs met, but
Figure 40
The Lack of Support Among Surviving and Stable Women
still need more money to feel fully financially secure and/or don’t believe they can build wealth at this time in their lives).
It also shows up in the number of women who said for girls and young women in their community to build wealth and have a more financially stable future they would invest in social capital. This includes connecting girls to financial planners as well as providing a “safe space”—a term that appeared in multiple responses. “I would want to better equip myself with financial knowledge and teach it to young women in our community and/or give them the opportunity to take free courses on financial literacy at an early age. I would also want to invest in a platform that amplified the young women’s voices and connected them with one another because so often, I just don’t feel like we’re fully listening to young people/valuing their opinions, and I especially feel that’s true for young women discovering and protecting themselves.” Another woman said she would invest in “a safe space to talk and get help building a resume, getting jobs, and help applying for college scholarships and grants.”
This lack of support is especially challenging for women in the ‘surviving’ group of financial wellbeing. These women already often face added barriers, such as limited discretionary income, unpredictable expenses, or completing financial priorities, which makes access to professional advice or trusted guidance even more critical. Without access to these resources, they are more likely to rely on trial and error for financial decisions, which can result in setbacks that are difficult to recover from.
Additionally, about one in five women are not satisfied in their personal relationships, and one in ten partnered women feel that being in a relationship does not contribute positively to building wealth. Many women may lack the relationships or emotional support needed to achieve their financial goals, or they may even feel that their relationships act as a financial burden rather than an asset. This combination of personal dissatisfaction, limited support, and lack of access to professional financial advice creates a compounding effect that makes building and sustaining wealth challenging for many women.
The survey data highlights the importance of community connection and the challenges many women face in feeling fully supported within their communities. While most women (91 percent) report having people who appreciate them as a person, the responses to the survey question, “I feel a sense of belonging to my community,” offer deeper insight. Fourteen percent of women disagree with this sentiment, and another 26 percent neither agree or disagree, suggesting a level of disengagement or uncertainty about their place in the community. It is encouraging that most women do feel a sense of belonging in their communities, but this is not the case for a substantial portion of the women surveyed.
A lack of connection to the community can create barriers to building wealth. Strong community networks provide essential financial and professional resources, including job opportunities, mentorship, and peer support. Women who feel disconnected may struggle to access financial education, career
growth opportunities, and wealth-building initiatives. Isolation can also contribute to stress and lower confidence in financial decisionmaking. Significantly fewer of these women who felt disconnected from their communities (37 percent) felt like they could build wealth at this time in their life compared to women who did feel a sense of belonging (54 percent). Ensuring that women feel valued, included, and supported in their communities can play a critical role in breaking down barriers to financial security and long-term economic success.
One woman reflected on the evolution of her understanding of wealth and personal growth. She described how early experiences of quiet reflection, writing, and dreaming helped shape her identity. She emphasizes that wealth is not just financial but also about access to valuable resources like people, places, and knowledge, which contribute to personal and business success. Having worked in corporate America for 20 years before becoming an entrepreneur, she highlighted the importance of networking, connecting with others, and using resources like grants and business services. Her advice to younger individuals, especially women, focused on building a strong brand, being consistent, and carefully managing their personal and professional image.
Women in Central Ohio face significant obstacles in achieving financial stability and career growth. Systemic barriers, workplace inequities, and limited access to resources create challenges that prevent women from advancing their careers, earning fair wages, and building long-term wealth. From gender disparities in leadership opportunities to the burden of unpaid labor at home, these obstacles contribute to a cycle that makes financial independence more difficult for women to reach.
Women identified traditional gender roles as a barrier to building wealth. When a woman in a relationship starts a family, most of the responsibilities for childrearing fall to her. This often leads to women foregoing more responsibility and higher positions at work or stepping away from the workforce entirely.
One woman described a common scenario: “At my point in my career, I should be at a higher level than I am. I took time out of my career to be a stay-at-home mom when my children were young. My career took a backseat to raising my kids, and it shows in my job title and compensation.” These decisions result in lost earnings for the woman and leave her in a vulnerable position. Women who step away from the workforce do not accumulate social security and may not have the ability to contribute to retirement savings. Additionally, several women in focus groups and through the survey shared stories of divorce in which the woman was left without resources as a result of her staying at home with children. Pay equity was cited as something that would help women advance.
Women of Central Ohio also named bias, discrimination, and the wage gap as barriers to wealth accumulation. Latina women shared stories of their name being a barrier to employment. Women who work in the trades reported male coworkers not wanting them to be there and not wanting them to succeed.
Women in politics mentioned needing to say things multiple times to be heard once.
Immigrant women reported that it is hard to get a work permit to get a better job. Women from communities of color also shared cultural barriers to pursuing wealth. In some Black communities, there is a stigma about advancing. In focus groups some of the Black women who have been successful shared being made to feel guilty for their success and needing to tone down their achievements to make others around them more comfortable. At the same time, Asian women in focus groups conveyed the pressure in their culture to achieve and challenges in falling at all short of extremely high expectations. Historical barriers to wealth accumulation in communities of color leave a lack of generational wealth to pass on.
Women also seek empowerment to be wealthy. They cite a lack of financial education as a barrier to wealth accumulation. They fear making a financial misstep. “Often, the lack of confidence keeps us from going after opportunities that can increase our wealth.” Or as another woman described it, “We think it’s some hard thing (and maybe it is if you don’t make enough to save) but I also think we think it is more overwhelming and requires more intelligence than it does.”
Discrimination presents a significant barrier to women’s ability to build wealth in Central Ohio.
The survey reveals that 65 percent of women report experiencing discrimination of any kind as a barrier to building their wealth.
Rates of women experiencing racism, sexism, & discrimination
Twenty-three percent identified it as a serious problem, 22 percent a moderate problem, and 20 percent a minor problem. Seventeen percent of women reported specifically experiencing racism, and 48 percent of women reported experiencing sexism as barriers. These figures highlight the persistent structural inequities that shape women’s financial and professional opportunities.
For some, discrimination is a frequent experience. Eighteen percent of women report encountering discrimination because of their gender more than once a month, while two percent experience it multiple times a week. Additionally, six percent name racism as a serious problem in their lives, and eight percent say the same about sexism.
This research incorporated a short scale of perceived gender-based discrimination that assessed the frequency of experiences of discrimination because of one’s gender. Given the prevalence of women reporting experiencing sexism, this scale is insightful for making meaningful comparisons in these experiences. For example, women over the age of 65 had significantly lower scores than the women younger than them, which indicates they are experiencing gender-based discrimination at lower rates. In fact, 61 percent of the older women report never personally being the victim of discrimination because of their gender, compared to 42 percent of 45-64-year-olds; 32 percent of 25-44-year-olds; and 22 percent of women under the age of 25. Results like these lead to interesting and important questions; are older women experiencing sexism much less often than younger women? Is this perhaps
a function of fewer women 65 and older being in the workforce compared to younger women? Are younger generations of women more adept at identifying sexism?
Another question worth asking is whether experiences of gender-based discrimination different by women of different races. Black women, and women of all other races, report significantly greater frequencies of gender-based discrimination compared to white non-Hispanic women. On one key individual question from the gender-based discrimination scale, the disparity is still clear as shown in the chart above. However, overall, Hispanic/Latina women's gender-based discrimination scores are between between Black and white women’s scores, meaning they experienced more gender-based discrimination than white women, but less than Black women, but were not technically significantly different from either group. On key individual questions, the disparity is still clear between Hispanic/Latina women and white women. Despite these challenges, these women’s belief in their ability to build wealth does not seem to be significantly related to their experiences of sexism, which suggest resilience rather than the absence of a problem.
Women who have personally been a victim of discrimination because of their gender of any frequency by race
Black Alone Or In Combination
Hispanic/
White Alone
All The Other Races Alone Or In Combination
Mean Perceived Gender-Based Discrimination Scores by Household Income; Scores range from 1-7, where higher scores indicate increased frequency of discrimination
Further analysis indicated that there was no significant difference between the regularity at which gender-based discrimination was experienced for various income levels, showing that sexism is a widespread issue across all income levels.
Analysis reveals that sexism is a widespread issue across all income levels, indicating that financial success does not provide insulation from gender-based discrimination. There was also no significant difference in gender-based discrimination between women who believed they could build wealth and the women who did not believe they could build wealth.
45
Frequency of experiencing harassment, aggression, or violence
Ongoing lived experiences of genderbased discrimination can limit job opportunities, affect earnings, and create hostile work environments that make career advancement difficult. Facing discrimination in hiring, promotions, and wages leads to longterm financial setbacks, making it harder for women to accumulate generational wealth, invest in futures, and achieve economic stability. The data collected underscores the need for systemic change to ensure that all women have equitable access to professional growth, financial resources, and workplace protections that support wealth-building.
46
8% of women have been denied service at a restaurant or other public accommodation
Has Never Happened: 93%
Harassment, aggression, and violence remain common experiences for many women. While 37 percent of respondents report never experiencing such incidents, 44 percent face them less than once a month, and 18 percent endure them on a more regular basis—ranging from monthly to multiple times per week. Additionally, eight percent of women report being denied service at a restaurant or other public accommodation because of their gender, highlighting the ongoing presence of exclusion and discrimination in daily life.
Figure 47
How much of a concern has discrimination of any kind been for building your wealth? By Race
Moderate/serious problem
Not/minor problem
Experiences of prejudice and discrimination are not experienced by all women equally. When asked about the challenges to building their wealth, 34 percent of white women reported experiencing discrimination in any form as a moderate to serious concern. This challenge was significantly more common however for Black women (64 percent), Hispanic/Latina women (60 percent), and women of all other races (61 percent ).
Figure 48
How much of a concern has discrimination of any kind been for building your wealth? By Sexual Orientation
Similar significant disparities in experiencing discrimination as a challenge to wealth building were identified in women who identified their sexual orientations as lesbian (59 percent), bisexual (55 percent), or some other sexual orientation (65 percent), when compared to women who identified their sexual orientation as straight (42 percent).
How much of a concern has discrimination of any kind been for building your wealth? By Disability, Chronic Condition, or other Challenge
Moderate/serious problem Not/minor problem
Women who reported having a disability, chronic condition, or other health challenge also reported significantly higher rates of discrimination as a barrier to building their wealth (40 percent) compared to women who did not report having a disability (25 percent).
Women who have multiple identities, for instance being both Black and having a disability, have likely experienced discrimination based on each of their identities creating multi-layered barriers to building wealth. The data shows significant disparities by race, sexual orientation, and disability status, reinforcing the reality that discrimination compounds financial inequity. These barriers create challenges in employment, earnings, and economic mobility, making it harder for many women to accumulate wealth over time.
For the following historically and actively marginalized groups, is there a significant difference in the belief of being able to build wealth between the women who did report discrimination as a challenge and the women who did not report discrimination as a challenge?
Group
Women 46% Among Women Who Did Report Discrimination
a Significant Difference
Among Women Who Did Not Report Discrimination
Women With a Disability, Chronic Condition, Or Health Concern
Difference
Despite persistent obstacles, discrimination does not appear to have a direct impact on women’s current belief in their ability to build wealth. This suggests resilience among women who have faced discrimination, as they continue to strive for financial security despite systemic inequities. The reality of these barriers cannot be ignored as they are yet another hurdle women must navigate in their pursuit of economic stability.
Nearly half of women have been deprived of professional opportunities
More Than Once a Month: 13%
This Has Never Happened: 51%
The workplace should be a space where women feel respected, valued, and empowered to grow professionally. Significant barriers to equity exist in the workplace, including feeling disrespected, disempowered, and overlooked in ways that limit women in their ability to advance their careers and build wealth.
Nearly half of women report being deprived of professional opportunities at some point in their careers because of their gender, with 13 percent experiencing this discrimination at a frequency of more than once a month.
Frequency of women receiving preferential treatment or special assistance
Offered special assistance or suppport
Received preferential treatments or special consideration
While professional growth should be based on merit, the data on preferential treatment tells a different story. Seventy-two percent of women report never receiving special considerations or advantages, while just four percent say they have received them more than once a month. Similarly, 80 percent of women have never been offered special assistance or support in the workplace. This lack of access to workplace support and considerations—combined with the intersectional barriers many women face—suggest an uneven playing field where professional success is harder to reach.
Beyond missed opportunities, the workplace environment itself can be hostile or dismissive of women’s contributions. Twenty-nine percent of women report not feeling respected by their supervisors, and nearly a quarter of women (24 percent) feel they cannot be themselves at work.
Workplace culture presents many daily challenges for women. When women were asked to think about the places they have worked in the last ten years, over half reported being talked over in meetings in their workplace (56 percent), and 60 percent had experienced their opinions being ignored or undervalued.
Women experience challenges in the workplace
Overhearing Or Being Forced Into Locker Room Talk Or Inappropiate Conversations
Receiving Unwanted Comments About Physical Appearance Unwanted Sexual Advances
My Emotional State Being Commented On
Receiving Unwanted Comments About Whether Or Not I'm Married/Relationship Status
Receiving Unwanted Comments About If I Have Children
Comments About My Eating
My Opinions Being Ignored Or Undervalued
My Judgement Being Questioned Or Not Taken Seriously Being Talked Over In Meetings
My Qualifications Being Questioned
Thirty-five percent had overheard or were forced into inappropriate conversations at work, and 27 percent had endured unwanted sexual advances. Around 40 percent had received unwanted comments about their
emotional state, and thirty-two percent had received unwanted comments about their relationship status. A third of the women had at one point been the only woman on their team.
Eighty percent of women indicated that they had experienced at least one of the challenges above in the last ten years, and of these women, the average number of challenges experienced was six. This means that of the 12 challenges listed above, 80 percent of women were experiencing on average some combination of half of them.
While these workplace experiences are frustratingly prevalent for all women, they were not experienced equally by women of different races. A significantly greater proportion of BIPOC women, compared to white non-Hispanic women, reported:
• Their opinions being ignored or undervalued (69 percent compared to 58 percent)
• Their judgement being questioned or not taken seriously (65 percent compared to 54 percent)
• Their qualifications being questioned (53 percent compared to 33 percent)
The heightened rates of sexism in the workplace experienced by BIPOC women mirror the findings that Black women and other women of color are more likely than white non-Hispanic women to experience greater frequencies of gender-based discrimination in general.
Experiencing abuse—whether physical, emotional, or financial—creates significant barriers to women’s ability to achieve economic stability and long-term wealth. Thirty-eight percent of women have experienced abuse from a partner at some point in their lives, with seventy-six percent of those cases occurring more than five years ago. While this suggests that many women surveyed are no longer in abusive relationships, the long-lasting impact of abuse, especially financial abuse, can extend well beyond the relationship itself, affecting a women’s ability to rebuild her financial independence, pursue career growth, and establish long-term security.
Financial abuse (reported by 28 percent of women) is particularly damaging because it directly limits access to financial resources and decision-making ability. Abusive partners may control bank accounts, limit access to employment, accumulate debt in a woman’s name, or otherwise sabotage financial stability. This type of control can make it incredibly difficult for women to leave an abusive relationship and can create long-term financial consequences that persist even after the relationship has ended. Many survivors must work to repair damaged credit, regain financial independence, and rebuild lost savings, all while navigating emotional recovery from their experiences.
For women already in financially vulnerable positions, experiencing abuse from a partner further compounds their challenges. Over half (52 percent) of women in the “surviving” category of financial
wellbeing reported experiencing abuse in their lifetimes, compared to 27 percent of “stable” women and 25 percent of “abundant” women. Women who are financially vulnerable often have fewer safety nets, making it harder to escape an abusive situation and rebuild afterward. Even women who have moved past these experiences into a more secure financial wellbeing status experience the lingering effects of abusive situations
Financial control is a key factor in building wealth, yet many women in Central Ohio feel limited in their ability to manage their own financial wellbeing. Thirty-three percent of women report that they do not feel capable or are unsure of their ability to effectively manage their finances. Over 20 percent feel powerless in their financial situation. Another 14 percent experience little control over their financial circumstances, highlighting a widespread challenge in financial autonomy.
Over
Partner Mostly or Completely Controlling Finances
Part of this struggle can be traced back to how money is discussed—or not discussed—within families. Thirty-nine percent of women grew up in households where talking about money was ‘taboo’, meaning they may not have received the financial education or open conversations necessary to build confidence in managing their finances. Without exposure to financial literacy at a younger age, women may enter adulthood less equipped to navigate budgeting, savings, investments, or long-term wealth building strategies.
This lack of control can also be reinforced within relationships. Twenty percent of women in relationships say their partner mostly or completely manages their finances, limiting their involvement in household decision making. More
concerning, about seven percent of partnered women surveyed report that they do not have access to their household finances at all, meaning they lack control over their own financial stability. When women are excluded from this type of decision making, whether through social norms or relationship dynamics, it can make it harder for them to be financially independent, recover from setbacks, or plan for the future.
The combination of financial insecurity, limited early exposure to financial education, and restricted control within relationships creates significant obstacles to wealth-building. Women who feel powerless over their finances may struggle to make informed financial decisions, take advantage of wealth building opportunities, or break free from financial insecurity.
Beyond personal financial management, many women also feel a lack of control when it comes to the systems and policies that shape their economic opportunities. Representation in government plays a crucial role in ensuring policies reflect the needs and priorities of women, particularly when it comes to issues like workplace protections, equal pay, childcare support, and financial security. The data shows that women feel more represented by their local government than by their state government.
In focus groups women shared they experience an incredible amount of stress in their lives, even if they do not identify it as such. This stress shows up in reports of avoiding doctor appointments due to medical bills, trying to navigate a job and care for a special needs child, or having to adjust to rising costs of living. These choices are not exclusive to women, but they are compounded by being a parent. In coupled parents, the responsibility more often falls to one partner, often a woman, and single-parent households are overwhelmingly female.
Parenting and lack of affordable childcare were some of the most mentioned barriers to achieving wealth. Many women stressed the importance of childcare in growing wealth. They said they would invest in affordable childcare to build a more financially stable future for girls and young women. Women in the trades shared that it is hard to find childcare that works with trade hours; moreover, they cannot work overtime due to lack of childcare options. This is a reality for any woman who works non-traditional hours. From a strictly financial perspective, children can be barriers to wealth. During focus groups, women without children reported being better off financially than their mothers who had children. They also report assuming they are better off financially than if they had children themselves.
“My primary expense is childcare. It’s more than my mortgage, and I’ve specifically been working towards pay increases at work to have enough income to cover childcare for a second kid before I try to get pregnant again. Affording daycare puts too many families in impossible situations to make ends meet and secure quality care.”
A third of women surveyed called out systemic barriers as contributing to their current financial status. They singled out costs of and access to healthcare and health insurance. They listed the costs of childcare and education. Insufficient social safety nets—for medical care, nutrition, childcare, and more—are a barrier to health and wellbeing for women. Immigrant women reported that they are sacrificing their mental, emotional, and physical well-being for the economic advancement of their children. Moreover, women are disproportionately at risk for gender-based violence. Gender-based violence results in trauma that can be a barrier to building wealth. As one woman in politics put it, “The system is set up to catch white men—women’s anxiety could come from a lack of a sense of safety.”
Access to healthcare is a fundamental part of financial stability, yet many women in Central Ohio face significant barriers due to high medical costs, unaffordable health insurance, and inadequate coverage.
These challenges not only affect their health and wellbeing but also contribute to financial strain that can make building wealth more difficult.
Ten percent of women report having been denied medical services, with 2 percent experiencing this denial at a frequency of more than once a month. Avoiding or being denied care can have severe consequences, forcing women to delay or forgo necessary medical treatment, which can lead to worsened health conditions and higher longterm costs.
Less Than Once a Month: 8%
More Than Once a Month: 2%
This Has Never Happened: 90%
The financial burden of healthcare is a major concern. As it relates to wealth building, 22 percent of women name medical costs as a serious problem, and just over half of the sample report some level of problem with affording healthcare. This underscores how healthcare expenses can be a persistent financial drain, making it harder for women to allocate resources toward savings, investments, or other long-term financial goals.
When asked about healthcare coverage, 22 percent of employed women disagreed with the statement that they have adequate coverage, and another 11 percent neither agreed nor disagreed. Over 30 percent of women do not feel that their health insurance definitively meets their needs. Without sufficient coverage, women may struggle to afford preventative care, mental health services, or necessary treatments, all of which affect their ability to work, earn income, and maintain financial stability.
For women already facing economic hardship, these healthcare challenges can be particularly severe, creating a cycle where financial instability leads
to poor health outcomes, which in turn make it even more difficult to achieve financial security and build wealth.
Addressing the affordability and accessibility of healthcare is critical to reducing economic barriers and ensuring that women have the resources they need to build and sustain wealth.
The presence of a chronic condition, disability, or health condition can significantly impact an individual’s ability to build wealth through lost wages, medical coverage, and medical debt. Forty-nine percent of women in the sample reported having at least one health condition or disability. The presence and types of health conditions differed significantly by age, with younger women being more likely to report a health condition: 66 percent of women younger than 25; 54 percent of women 25-44; 47 percent of women 45-64; and 43 percent of women 65 and older. Women under 25 were more likely to report emotional/mental health (55 percent) and cognitive health (23 percent) conditions, compared to women 65 and older (seven percent and one percent respectively).
A similarly high rate of women 25-44 reported having emotional/ mental health (43 percent) and cognitive (16 percent) conditions. For women 65 and older, having a chronic health condition was the most reported (28 percent) health challenge and was reported at a higher rate than women under 25 (13 percent) and women 25-44 (12 percent). Additionally, seven percent of the survey population is unable to work due to disability.
Eighty-eight percent of the women indicated they had at least a little familiarity with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protections, with 30 percent being very or extremely familiar. The ADA protects people with disabilities from discrimination, and having familiarity with the law is the first step in accessing its protections if needed.
Mental and emotional wellbeing are deeply connected to financial security and career success, yet many women in Central Ohio, especially younger women, report struggling with mental health challenges, low energy, and lack of fulfillment in their daily lives. These factors create significant barriers to wealthbuilding as poor mental health can affect job performance, decision making, and long-term financial planning.
When looking at mental health, 29 percent of women reported having an emotional or mental health condition, such as anxiety, depression, Bipolar disorder, PTSD, etc. When specifically asked about their experiences in the last 30 days, 12 percent of women reported experiencing depression for ten to fifteen days a month, while 20 percent reported experiencing anxiety or tension ten to fifteen days a month. Additionally, 20 percent also struggled with understanding, concentrating, or remembering for ten to fifteen days within the past month. More alarmingly, six percent of women experienced depression every single day over the past month while 11 percent experienced daily anxiety or trouble with concentration. Eighteen percent of women younger than 25, and 16 percent of women aged 25-44 reported experiencing daily anxiety. This data suggest that a significant portion of women are living with persistent mental health struggles.
62
Prevelance of mental health markers over the last 30 days
Depression
Anxiety or Tension
Trouble understanding, concentrating or remembering
Beyond mental health, the survey respondents also highlight broader concerns about wellbeing, motivation, and community connection. Forty-four percent of women reported not feeling energized in most activities, and 40 percent do not feel a sense of belonging in their community. A small but concerning portion—nine percent—do not agree with the statement that there are people who appreciate them as a person, highlighting feelings of isolation and disconnect.
Women who do not agree with the following statements
Personal fulfillment and self-efficacy are some areas of concern. Thirty percent of women do not feel good most of the time, 30 percent lack a clear sense of purpose, and 23 percent do not feel what they do is valuable or worthwhile. Ten percent do not believe they are achieving most of their goals, and another 25 percent neither agree nor disagree with the sentiment. Twenty-three percent don’t feel optimistic about their future. Perhaps most strikingly, 18 percent of women do not believe they can achieve success even if they put their mind to it.
These findings illustrate how financial and career barriers are compounded by emotional and psychological struggles. When women feel disconnected from their communities, unfulfilled in their goals, and unsure about their future, it becomes even harder to make strategic financial choices, advocate for better job opportunities, or take steps toward long term financial security.
Women who do not agree with the following statements
Women who do not agree with the following statements
The need for a living wage was pointed out by many women through the survey. For older women on fixed or reduced incomes, taxes become a greater burden and barrier to financial stability—especially when coupled with rapid inflation and increased cost of living. “My taxes and homeowners’ insurance have gone up at a higher amount than my income.” Credit card debt also holds some women back. One woman shared that lower property taxes and lower childcare costs would “allow me to plan for uncertainty beyond using credit cards and save.”
Women named resource disparities, inflation, and the benefits cliff as barriers to building wealth. “We do not receive food or as much medical benefits anymore because of my employment income. The true cost of living does not align with the government cost of living and the rising costs of necessities makes it difficult to save.” Immigrant women cited a lack of credit history as a barrier. Many women through the survey called out the inflated costs of utilities, groceries, housing, and childcare, as barriers to wealth. One woman phrased this feeling as wanting “better policies that didn’t make basic necessities so expensive so I’m able to save more money for my future.” Wages have not kept up with the realities of living, and one woman said “Employers matching pay with increasing costs of living” would help her advance financially.
One major barrier is the lack of paid family leave. More than half of women report that not having family leave is a barrier to building their wealth, with 16 percent identifying it as a serious issue. Without access to paid leave many women, especially caregivers and working mothers, must choose between keeping their income and attending to their family’s needs.
More than half of women report having no family leave at work is a problem A serious problem Moderate problem Minor problem
Low wages are still a significant challenge. Sixteen percent of women cite inadequate or poor wages as a serious problem to building their wealth, highlighting the struggle to afford rising costs of living.
Twenty percent of women who are working are working more than one job, and five percent take part in gig economy work such as Uber, Amazon Flex, or Airbnb hosting to supplement their employment. Less than one percent of women rely on gig work as their primary source of income, suggesting that these jobs serve more as supplementary income rather than a primary source of income.
Workplace flexibility is another critical issue. One in five women who are working do not have flexible work options, which makes balancing employment and personal responsibilities difficult. Seventeen percent report that their job does not provide enough vacation or personal time, while six percent say their job does not fit their situation well (another 13 percent don't definitively agree or disagree that their job is a good fit). Six percent feel their work hours are too strict and five percent report that their schedules are inconsistent. These challenges prevent women from taking advantage of financial opportunities such as furthering their education, pursuing higher paying jobs, or saving for the future.
When it comes to the quality of employment, being treated like you are replaceable, worrying about being fired if you don’t meet strict quotas, not being offered a consistent number of work hours each week, and worrying about losing your job, are defining aspects of precarious employment.
As explored earlier in this report, women who were precariously employed experienced significantly worse job satisfaction, worked significantly more inflexible jobs, and earned significantly less money.
A little over a third (36 percent) of all women in the sample were working these kinds of jobs. They were most prevalently worked by the surviving group (the women who were struggling to meet their basic needs), where 43 percent of women were in precarious work. Only 22 percent of women in the abundant group were precariously employed, and 35 percent of the women in the stable group were precariously employed.
Women who are actively employed, seeking employment, or are unemployed but could still be in the workforce (not retired or unable to work due to disability) report a range of challenges that contribute to financial instability, create difficulty finding employment, and limit career advancement. Balancing work with household responsibilities, caregiving, and other obligations placed more strain on women.
Common Difficulties Experienced with Employment
I Have Been/Believe I Will Be Discriminated Against/Treated Poorly
Transportation Is Difficult For Me
Balancing Work And Furthering My Education
Jobs I Want Require Too Many Qualifications
I'm Trying To CHange My Career
Jobs
Structural barriers in employment further contribute to financial insecurity. Twenty-nine percent of women believe they will face discrimination or unfair treatment in the workplace, while 27 percent I Have A Criminal Record That Makes It Hard
Sixty-seven percent of women must balance supporting their household with their job, while 51 percent also juggle childcare responsibilities.
Forty-five percent report balancing other caregiving responsibilities alongside their employment. These competing demands often force women to make difficult choices between work and personal responsibilities, affecting career progression and financial independence.
identify transportation as a challenge in keeping employment. Thirty-five percent report that available jobs do not pay enough to meet their needs, and 22 percent are working while advancing their education to improve their financial prospects. It’s notable that relatively few women reported feeling like they were not qualified (14 percent), or did not have strong enough references (seven percent) as challenges with employment. Similarly, few women felt that there were no good jobs in their areas (ten percent), or that they didn’t know how to find new jobs (three percent). Instead, the most common barriers were structural and gendered.
Invisible family load—sometimes referred to as cognitive load or mental burden—disproportionately affects women. This research used a validated scale that measured three unique components of invisible family load: emotional load; managerial load, and cognitive load. The scales were only completed by partnered women, and measured the frequency of how often in the last month the respondent did things like “process information related to your family’s needs, goals, activities, responsibilities, and/ or wellbeing” or “feel distressed about your family’s needs, goals, activities, responsibilities, and/or wellbeing.” These measures can provide insight into who is experiencing higher levels of burden related to invisible family load and how it relates to other key measures of wealth.
When exploring invisible family load among the surviving, stable, and abundant groups, we found that women in all levels of abundance experienced similar levels of cognitive and managerial load. The cognitive and managerial loads include things like processing information, keeping things in mind, and coordinating one’s family’s needs.
Considering emotional load—things like feeling apprehensive, feeling troubled, and feeling distressed about one’s family’s needs—women in the surviving group have a mean score that fell between occasionally and sometimes (3.45); women in the stable group had a mean score that fell between rarely and occasionally (2.56); and women in the abundant group had a mean score that equated to rarely (2.06). These differences were significant and show how women who are not abundant may be facing additional, typically gendered, mental burdens around their families.
It’s also important to note that despite there being no significant difference in the managerial and cognitive load subscales amongst the women of different levels of abundance, their scores all hovered around a 5, which on a 6-point scale where a 6 means “usually/always,” a 5 translates to regularly thinking about and coordinating their family’s needs. This represents a significant amount of time women spend thinking about their families. This is not inherently a bad thing, but if the mental burden is unequally shared in a partnership, this is another barrier to women being able to focus on themselves and building their wealth.
Raising children can be a barrier to building wealth if women must shoulder an unequal amount of the work. A key driver of increased invisible family load for women is the care of children. Women who had
children under 18 in their households experienced significantly greater emotional, managerial, and cognitive load, compared to women who either didn’t have children or whose children were older than 18. In addition to the restraints it may put on her time, energy, and other resources, a woman raising children typically endures an increased amount of mental burden.
Increased burden of carrying the emotional load correlates with financial scarcity including shortage of money, feeling a lack of control, rumination and worry, and short-term focus. Women who were experiencing elevated levels of stress about their finances were also likely to be experiencing elevated levels of compounding emotional load within their families.
Caregiving often comes with significant economic costs for those providing care. Over half of women surveyed indicated that needing to reduce hours for caretaking is at least a minor problem in their lives. Women indicated that caring for children is a more serious problem for reducing their work hours compared to caring for older family members. As women are more likely to be caregivers of both children and adults, the time taken off to care for loved ones often comes with a financial and emotional burden that can have a significant effect on their wealth building success.
Debt is a significant barrier to financial stability and wealth building for many women in Central Ohio, with credit card and student loan debt creating long-term financial strain. Poor credit scores, excessive debt, and financial abuse further complicate women’s ability to build wealth, access financial opportunities, and plan for the future.
Sixty-one percent of women report that their credit score is not a problem, 14 percent say it is a minor issue, 11 percent call it a moderate problem, and another 14 percent identify it as a serious challenge when it comes to building their wealth.
More than half of women report struggling with credit card debt as a barrier to building their wealth, making it one of the most widespread financial challenges they face.
More than half of women struggle with credit card debt
a Problem: 59% Moderate: 11% Minor: 12% Serious: 17%
Serious: 17%
19%
21%
While student loan debt is also a major concern affecting nearly half of women, credit card debt appears to have a more immediate impact. Seventeen percent of women say their student loans are a serious problem, while the same percentage identify credit card debt as a serious issue. Only 42 percent of women report that credit card debt is not a problem for them compared to 59 percent of student loans. Age plays a significant role in these experiences with debt. Forty-six percent of women under 25 and 57 percent of women aged 25-44 reported student loans as a problem to building their wealth, compared to 38 percent of women aged 45-64 and only 16 percent of women aged 65 and older.
The inability to save money is one of the most widespread financial challenges for women. Threequarters of women report that saving is at least somewhat difficult, with 25 percent calling it a serious problem.
Twenty-eight percent of women report experiencing financial abuse at some point in their lives, with four percent saying it has occurred within the past year. Nineteen percent of women report that their partner controlling their finances is a problem, with five percent identifying it as a serious issue.
Percent of women who are “never” or “rarely” able to afford needs
For many women in Central Ohio, financial instability is not just about long-term wealth building; it is about meeting basic needs daily. The data makes it clear that covering essential
expenses—from housing and medical bills to food and basic needs like transportation—is still a struggle for a significant portion of women.
Nearly half (45 percent) of women report that they are not always able to cover their basic needs.
Medical bills present the most common financial hardship, with 27 percent of women saying they are never or rarely able to pay them. Transportation costs are another pressing issue, with 18 percent struggling to afford reliable transportation. Housing costs, while a challenge for many, are an especially severe burden for 20 percent of women who report they are never or rarely able to afford their rent or
Housing Challenges to Building Wealth for Homeowners and Renters
mortgage. Smaller but still notable portions of women report struggling to purchase medications (five percent), food (four percent), or pay their utility bills (four percent).
Beyond immediate expenses, many women find themselves without financial breathing room. Thirty percent report they rarely or never have money left at the end of the month, while another 27 percent only sometimes do. This lack of financial cushion leaves little room for unexpected costs, savings, or investment in future financial stability.
Housing costs are a particular strain when it comes to building wealth, with renters bearing a larger share of that burden than homeowners. Among homeowners, 21 percent of women indicated that high housing costs are a serious problem, with 37 percent saying it is not a problem at all. Contrast that with women who are renting, of which 90 percent indicate that housing costs are a barrier to building wealth, and half of whom describe housing costs as a serious challenge. These differences are hardly a surprise; homeownership is often seen as a primary way to build wealth, an opportunity not afforded to renters.
Three
Financial literacy is a critical element of economic stability and wealth building yet many women in Central Ohio lack access to reliable financial education, mentorship, and professional guidance. Without foundational knowledge of financial products and practices, women face added barriers to making informed decisions about saving, investing, and long-term financial planning.
One in three women report not having a trusted person they can turn to with questions about finances or financial planning. More than half have never worked with a financial planner.
Gaps in financial education begin early. More than 80 percent of women did not receive personal finance instruction as part of their high school education, and more than half were not taught key financial concepts, such as credit scores, interest rates, or retirement savings by their parents. Without education or parental guidance, women are often left to learn through trial and error, which can result in costly financial mistakes. Fortunately, as of 2022, Ohio high school students must take a semesterlong course on personal finance. Required topics include financial responsibility and decision making, planning and money management, being an informed consumer, credit and debt, investments, risk management, and insurance. In Central Ohio, high rates of women feel comfortable engaging in the day-to-day activities required to manage money including using an ATM, online banking, and managing credit cards.
Mentorship and guidance are also lacking. Sixty percent of women have never had access to a financial mentor, limiting their ability to learn from the experiences of others. This is particularly concerning given that 70 percent of women report low levels of comfort with investments and stocks which are two key tools for wealth building.
One woman shared a multifaceted approach to wealthbuilding, focusing on financial management, career advancement, and personal growth. She emphasized spending less than she earned, improving credit, and managing debt while building social capital through networking across industries.
She highlighted the importance of negotiation skills for career growth and the value of goal setting and resilience in navigating challenges. Her early experiences as a business owner taught her key financial lessons, and her time working with the Ford Foundation helped expand her perspectives. She stressed the importance of lifelong learning, both formal and informal, and global networking for creativity, innovation, and securing opportunities that lead to long-term wealth generation and financial security.
To build wealth is to thrive. To have wealth, in its many definitions, is to thrive. What thriving is not, is the absence of suffering. To explore the complexity of thriving, this research used the validated Brief Inventory of Thriving Scale, which is comprised of ten questions that measure the following six core dimensions of thriving:
• Meaning and purpose in life
• Optimism
• Subjective wellbeing
• Mastery (feelings of self-worth, self-efficacy, and accomplishment)
• Engagement in one’s life
• Relationships (support and belonging)
The scale ranges from 10-50, where higher numbers show greater thriving. For all women who took the survey, the mean score was 38.2. To better conceptualize this score, if a woman strongly disagreed with all the questions about her thriving on the scale, her score would be a 10. If she strongly agreed with all the questions, her score would be 50. These findings are consistent with the average scores of women who have taken the scale across the country.68
A mean score of 38.2 is generally positive and suggests that despite the financial and structural barriers many women face, most women in Central Ohio maintain a positive outlook on their lives and futures. This is easier to discern when exploring how women answered specific questions from the Inventory of Thriving scale. Over half of survey respondents reported feeling energized in most of their daily
In Most Activities I Do, I Feel Energized
I Am Achieving Most Of My Goals
My Life Is Going Well
I Feel Good Most Of The Time
My Life Has A Clear Sense Of Purpose
What I Do In Life Is Valuable And Worthwhile
I Am Optimistic About My Future
I Can Succeed If I Put My Mind To It
activities, and 61 percent feel they are achieving most of their goals. Seventy percent believe their lives have a clear sense of purpose, and 77 percent are optimistic about their future.
The relationship between income and thriving is clear; women with greater household incomes reported significantly higher levels of thriving. But there is nuance to this relationship.
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While the households with the highest incomes reported significantly higher levels of thriving compared to the households with the lowest incomes, there wasn’t a significant difference between the households in the middle of the income spectrum. While small increases in household income tended to equate with slightly increased thriving, it seems that income is only one aspect of thriving.
The Moderate Strength Correlation between Thriving and Psyhological Inventory of Financial Scarcity
A more direct pathway in which a woman’s income can influence thriving is through the psychological impact of her financial situation. There is a moderate strength inverse relationship between women’s thriving scores and their Psychological Inventory of Financial Scarcity scores, meaning increases in concerns around financial scarcity were correlated with decreases in overall thriving. More specifically, approximately 24 percent of the variation in women’s thriving in this sample can be attributed to variation in the psychological relationship with finances. Concerns around financial scarcity are related to women’s ability to thrive. Finding ways to improve women’s feelings of financial security would directly affect their feelings of thriving.
There is a clear relationship between thriving and belief in wealth building, even when explicit measures of income and money are removed from the equation.
When the sample is split into four even quartiles based on women’s thriving scores, the percentage of women in each quartile that believe they can build wealth at this point in their lives, however they define it, is significantly different. In the lowest thriving quartile, only 26 percent of women believe they can build wealth at this point in their life. In the second quartile, this percentage climbs to 36 percent. In the third quartile, this percentage again climbs to 55 percent. And in the highest quartile of thriving, 71 percent of women believe they can build wealth at this point in their life.
The level of thriving was also significantly different amongst the groups of surviving (35.7), stable (39.5) and abundant (41.8) women. It is hard to feel like you are fully thriving when you are struggling to cover your household’s basic needs, or could use more money at the end of every month to feel fully financially secure.
This research does not purport to prescribe exact pathways of how to make women feel like they are thriving or how to be financially abundant. It seeks to highlight how these key outcomes appear to be deeply interconnected.
Belief in ability to build wealth is different by levels of thriving, which is correlated with the psychological relationship to financial scarcity, which is correlated to invisible emotional load, the outcomes of which are almost always significantly poorer for women who are surviving, significantly better for women who are stable, and consistently best for women who are abundant.
Women who are working stable jobs, who have the necessary support, who are not mentally overburdened with concerns about their families and their finances, who are not struggling to cover their basic needs, are all more likely to be thriving. These findings have repeatedly shown that improvements in any of these measures will likely be related to improvements across other metrics. Even if the progress seems incremental, the improvement may be significant.
One woman defined wealth as something that extends beyond immediate material needs, focusing on long-term impact and future possibilities. She reflected on her grandmother’s experiences as a domestic worker, highlighting the lack of return on her labor despite her hard work.
For her, wealth is not just about paycheck or savings but about having influence, leverage, and the ability to use those resources to benefit herself, her family, and her community.
She contrasts survival, which involves a scarcity mindset and merely getting by, with thriving, which signifies abundance and continuous growth. Thriving, in her view, means using resources to sustain growth and magnify wealth, ensuring freedom and opportunity without fear of lacking. To truly thrive, one must understand survival, as it helps to appreciate abundance and its potential to create lasting impact for oneself and others.
Over and over again, women shared that wealth is about what it allows them to do for others. Being able to help others—their families, their communities, other women trying to succeed—is a sign of wealth. Women want to pass on any material wealth they are able and also their knowledge. They want to create opportunities for others to climb the ladder. In a focus group, one woman reported being proud of her children knowing how to negotiate their salaries. Many women expressed wealth as having a sense of purpose. Being happy is a definition of wealth, and for many women their happiness is connected to making a difference in their communities.
One woman discussed her perspective on wealth, describing it as a symbol of independence and freedom.
To her, wealth means the ability to live without being dependent on others’ opinions or support, while still being open to seeking help when needed. She also viewed wealth as the result of hard work, with the hope of leaving a legacy for her children who will use that wealth to help others in the future. Overall, she emphasized wealth as a means of freedom, self-sufficiency, and the ability to give back.
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Most Women Are Able to Set Their Children on a Path of Financial Security
Over 60 percent of women expressed confidence in their ability to set their children on a path towards being financially secure. Nearly one in four women (24 percent) feel they are unable to do so, and 15 percent are uncertain about their ability to provide this financial foundation.
These findings underscore the challenges some parents face in equipping their children with financial knowledge. Early exposure to financial education plays a critical role in shaping children’s financial behaviors and long-term economic wellbeing. Many women report lacking financial literacy themselves, making it more difficult to pass on these essential skills.
Without adequate financial knowledge and stability, parents may struggle to prepare their children for future financial independence. Addressing gaps in financial education and access to resources can help ensure that future generations are better positioned for long term financial security.
Three out of four women report feeling passionate about the work they do, highlighting the powerful sense of purpose many find in their careers and contributions to their community. Beyond employment, 13 percent of women specified their contributions to the community as something in their life that they are very proud of.
Personal fulfillment and financial stability are often interconnected, as meaningful work can provide both a sense of purpose and economic security. One woman shared that she is proud of, “starting and running a business that supported many people in our community and created community among them.” Another reflected on her pride in her “ability to give back to the community and the people who have shown me the same support over the years.”
While many women take pride in their work and community engagement, financial barriers such as low wages, job insecurity, and limited economic mobility can make it difficult to turn passion into long term financial security. Ensuring that women have the resources and opportunities to thrive professionally not only helps them but also strengthens the communities they serve.
Financial security is a key part of empowerment. Women who have the resources to withstand financial challenges are more confident in their ability to make decisions that align with their best interest. Wealth provides not only stability but also the power to say no, set boundaries, and pursue opportunities without financial constraints. For some women, empowerment also includes overcoming cultural barriers that have historically limited—and still today limit—their ability to build wealth. Knowledge plays a critical role in fostering empowerment. Women who feel knowledgeable about financial matters experience less fear and more confidence in financial matters.
One woman shared how thriving goes beyond merely surviving. It means having essentials such as stable employment, housing, and food security, and access to opportunities that promote long-term financial growth. She defined thriving as having not just the essentials like a job, family, and food, but also the opportunity to pursue education or training and the resources to continue climbing the financial ladder. She emphasized the importance of experiences and support, particularly through grants for nonprofits that help women, especially those from marginalized communities. She advocated for a holistic approach to support, including financial contributions, volunteering, and providing resources, but stresses that passionate, hands-on leadership is key to making a meaningful impact.
There is evidence of a strong link between the level of financial abundance and empowerment. Women who were a part of the surviving group experienced significantly less control over their finances compared to women who were stable and women who were financially abundant. Even among women who are financial stable, feelings of financial control and confidence are lower than those reported by women with financial abundance.
Findings from the Psychological Inventory of Financial Scarcity scale further illustrate this relationship. There are three items that comprise the scale, the first of which was about experiencing little control over one’s situation. The survey question, “I experience little control over my financial situation” shows a clear pattern: 55% of women in surviving category agreed with the statement, compared to only 15% of stable women and and 5% of financially abundant women.
Similarly, when asked, “When I think about my financial situation, I feel powerless,” only 28 percent of financially surviving women disagreed, while 72 percent of financially stable women and 90 percent of financially abundant women disagreed. These findings suggest that financial scarcity is closely tied to feelings of powerlessness, while financial stability and abundance allow for greater confidence and control.
When I think about my financial situation, I feel powerless
Feelings of control seem to be closely linked with financial abundance. For the women who are not able to always meet their needs (surviving), feelings of powerlessness are common, and confidence in managing one’s financial situation are much more common. Even for women who have their basic needs met (stable), nearly 30 percent of them do not definitively disagree with feeling powerless when it comes to their financial situation.
In focus groups, women expressed a strong connection between financial security and overall wellbeing. Wealth provides a foundation of stability that allows women to meet their needs without constant financial stress.
When they have wealth, women can own a house, be debt-free, have their bills on autopay, cover an unexpected expense, and not live paycheck-to-paycheck. All these comments reflect a release of financial stress from abundance. Beyond financial comfort, policies such as paid time off contribute to both wealth and health. The ability to take time away from work for medical care, recovery, or personal wellbeing without financial consequence is essential for maintaining stability.
As one woman put it, “What is most fundamental is health. If we don’t have that, we don’t have anything.”
Health and financial security are deeply intertwined. Without access to healthcare and financial resources to support good health, women face more barriers to economic stability. Ensuring that women have the financial means to prioritize their health through adequate insurance, paid leave, and the ability to afford medical expenses is essential to helping women and their families thrive. Wealth is not just about financial assets but also the ability to maintain a healthy and sustainable life.
Making Women Wealthy and Free
Achieving financial stability is essential, but financial abundance opens new possibilities for women.
Many women described wealth as freedom, flexibility, choices, and liberation. They described it as a shift from simply meeting basic needs to having the resources to shape their lives on their own terms.
Wealth allows women to build savings, accumulate discretionary income, and have the financial flexibility to make decisions that reinforce long-term security. With financial abundance, women have more time and capacity to make thoughtful financial choices that strengthen their economic future. For some, wealth creates opportunities to travel, pursue further education, or engage in hobbies that bring about fulfillment. It also enables women to plan for retirement, a milestone that stays out of reach for many who struggle to meet immediate financial demands.
Beyond financial gains, women report that wealth allows them to live more intentionally. Without the constant pressure of financial survival, they can focus on personal growth, wellbeing, and long-term aspirations.
Moving beyond survival and stability and toward a life of financial abundance is not just about money or income, it is about creating a life with greater autonomy, opportunity, and purpose.
For many women in Central Ohio, financial stability provides a sense of security and peace of mind. Over 30 percent of women agree that they do not worry about their finances, with nearly 20 percent strongly agreeing. In contrast, less than 40 percent of women reported they often worry about money. Women have many things on their mind as they navigate their personal and professional environments.
The ability to manage finances effectively plays a key role in reducing stress. Three-fourths of women reported they can enjoy life due to their ability to manage money; specifically, 41 percent reported they were somewhat able to manage money, and 34 percent reported they could manage money very well/
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Strong financial managment skills have positive results for women
I Can Enjoy Life Because Of The Way I'm Managing My Money
completely. Almost 70 percent of women who responded to the survey have money left over at the end of the month at least some of the time and typically have the financial capacity to handle unexpected expenses. Having a sense of control over finances allows women to feel more secure and less stressed. Having strong financial management skills is key to achieving long-term financial stability.
One woman reflected on her journey with wealth and shares how her definition of wealth has evolved over time. Initially, wealth was about achieving enough money to cover basic needs, particularly as a single mother balancing work and childcare. As she gained more exposure to different lifestyles, her view of wealth expanded to include financial security, such as having a savings account that wasn’t immediately drained by unexpected expenses. She recalls setting financial goals, like saving $1,000, and later $10,000, which helped her understand the process of wealth-building.
Over time, her perspective on wealth shifted from individual financial success to a broader sense of significance where wealth is not only about personal gain but also the ability to help family, community, and others.
This sense of abundance empowers her to make a positive impact, while also enjoying small indulgences like buying things without financial stress. Ultimately, she believes that wealth is not just about accumulation, but about the agency it gives to influence and create opportunities for others.
For many women in Central Ohio, retirement is still an uncertain goal rather than a guaranteed milestone. Only 19 percent of the women who responded to the survey stated that they can definitely retire when they want to, while 40 percent of women believe that they will probably not retire on their own terms. Very few women in Central Ohio feel confident about their readiness for retirement, while most of the women are uncertain.
Retirement is often seen as a well-earned reward after years of work, offering the freedom to enjoy life without financial strain. For many women who lack sufficient savings, investments, or retirement planning, the possibility of retiring comfortably feels out of reach. Many women may need to extend their working years, rely on family support, or adjust their expectations for retirement due to financial limitations. The lack of retirement security underscores the importance of financial planning, wealth building strategies, and access to retirement resources.
Financial stability allows women to plan beyond their immediate needs and focus on long term financial goals.
Seventy percent of women can focus on their future expenses instead of the immediate financial need of the moment. Still, financial insecurity remains a reality for some women. Twenty-one percent of women
Because of my financial sitaution, I live day to day
describe their financial situation as living day to day. On the other hand, 35 percent of women disagree that their financial situation forces them to live from day to day, highlighting the divide between those who are financially stable and those who continue to struggle with economic uncertainty.
In Central Ohio, nearly half of women reported having a good quality of life and an additional nearly 30 percent said that their quality of life was very good. This reflects positively on their living conditions, personal well-being, resiliency, and overall satisfaction. On the other hand, 17 percent of women rated their quality of life as neither poor nor good. A smaller portion of survey participants report a poor quality of life which points to challenges or dissatisfaction with their overall wellbeing. These findings suggest that while many
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women in the region feel secure and satisfied, others continue to face financial challenges that affect their overall wellbeing.
One woman discussed wealth as freedom, emphasizing that true wealth is not about material possessions like expensive cars or large homes. Instead, wealth is the freedom to make choices without the anxiety of financial stress.
For her, it means the ability to take care of herself, enjoy small luxuries like a spa day, and most importantly, not worry about basic needs like mortgage payments, savings, or retirement. Wealth allows for the freedom to change careers or make decisions without the fear of financial insecurity. She also highlighted the importance of shifting from a scarcity mindset to one that embraces abundance, which brings peace of mind and the ability to focus on more meaningful pursuits. Wealth, for her, is also about having the freedom to enjoy life’s small pleasures, like spending time with family or being able to indulge in simple treats without financial worry.
Financial freedom allows for autonomy in decision making, yet for many women in Central Ohio, financial constraints continue to shape their daily lives. Only 21 percent of women reported that their finances never control their lives, and 28 percent said that their finances rarely control their lives. This
means that more than half of women regularly face financial limitations that affect their choices from routine expenses to long term planning.
The burden of financial uncertainty forces many women to make difficult trade-offs, such as choosing between transportation costs and essential household needs. When finances dictate major life decisions, opportunities for advancement such as pursuing education, investing in the future, or securing financial stability become harder to achieve.
Many women are burdened with financial uncertainties that impact their ability to have control over their financial situations. The lack of financial freedom forces women to make tough decisions such as choosing between putting gas in their cars and feeding their families.
Reducing financial constraints is essential to ensuring that women have the freedom to make choices that align with their goals rather than being dictated by economic hardship. Expanding financial resources, increasing access to stable employment, and strengthening safety nets are necessary steps toward enabling more women to experience financial independence and control over their lives.
The historical context of women's wealth accumulation
In the early 20th century, women’s participation in the workforce was not common, and even less so for married women.1 Only one in five women worked outside of the home, and only five percent of married women could say the same. The contributions of women to the economy were not fully recognized, as many women worked unpaid within the house, and in family businesses or through selling agricultural products. Black women were almost twice as likely to be involved in the workforce as white women and tended to stay in the labor force after they were married. Higher education was not a path that many women or men took at the time. This left jobs that were largely unsafe or dirty, like domestic work or work in factories.
The World Wars and the women's movement meant that more women were joining the workplace. This shift in the workforce led to broader social change that culminated in the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, when women earned the right to vote. As the stock market began to indicate an economic crash in the 1930’s, a warning arose from the New York Commissioner on Labor, Frances Perkins, about a population who could pose a threat to the jobs of millions of Americans: married women. Perkins was not the only figure concerned about the threat this population posed; laws, called marriage bars, were passed during the Great Depression banning married women from many workplaces. Some of these laws passed by states seemed to be based on ‘moral obligations,’ with Wisconsin passing a resolution that referred to two-income families as a form of birth control that would break down all of civilization and form an unhealthy atmosphere.
When the federal government got involved in 1932, all government offices had to fire one member of each married couple. Since women tended to make less, they made up the sizable portion of positions that were ultimately emptied. The federal government also feared that to get around this, women would start going by other names, such as their maiden name. This resulted in a law that required women with federal jobs to take their husband’s last name. Some women married in secret so that their coworkers would not learn of their nuptials.
By the 1940s, 26 states had marriage bars in place. Married women were an easy scapegoat to blame for the lack of job availability during this time and were often criticized for how they spent their money. ‘Pin money’ was a term coined for the money that married women would make in a job, referencing the frivolous spending on fancy items that they were accused of at the time. Marriage bars were put into place to reserve jobs for men, but also to ensure that unmarried women without families to support were forced into the lowest paying positions, like clerical work and teaching. These job sectors continue to be female dominated many decades later.
Throughout the early-to-mid-20th century, participation rates for women in the workforce continued to rise, likely due an increase in new technologies. Clerical work, switchboard operators, and teaching were all jobs that were often held by a female-dominated workforce, due to prior laws reserving these
opportunities for women. These jobs also tended to be cleaner and safer options. In 1960, the first birth control pill, Enovid, was released. It has been widely attributed to the rise in women’s participation in the workforce. Although the pill did give women an unprecedented control over their reproduction, a right that had previously existed for men, labor force participation for women had been rising steadily for some time prior to its release.
The Equal Pay Act was signed into law in 1963, which mandated equal pay for equal work and sought to eliminate gender disparities in pay. While this law was integral in cementing pay equality into law, a significant wage gap continues to exist between women and men today.
Up to the 1970s, many women did not expect to, and usually did not, spend most of their adult lives in the workforce. Men were still seen as the “breadwinners” of households, and a woman’s income was often believed to be secondary. Then a new model of the two-income family began to emerge. Despite this, women continued to be discriminated against when seeking mortgage lending or consumer lending in general. United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg was integral in the 1971 legal case of Reed v. Reed, finding that dissimilar treatment based on sex to determine an administrator of an estate was unconstitutional.
The Reed decision was the first ruling by the Supreme Court that stated that the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause prohibited discrimination based on sex. Reed was a landmark decision that paved the way for the addition of gender discrimination as a type of prohibitable discrimination. In 1974, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act included discrimination against marital status and sex, in addition to race, national origin, and color (later added in an amendment in 1976).
Lenders maintained that treating each sex as different protected their financial interests.2 Many banks had different requirements for women seeking loans and subjected them to an extensive list of personal questions that men were not. These questions pertained to marital status and availability of male cosigners, such as husbands or other male family members. Without a male co-signer, most women were not granted loans. The passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act required banks to only consider creditworthiness when individuals are seeking loans.3
In 1978, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit sex discrimination because of pregnancy or the potential to become pregnant. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) made it illegal for workplaces with 15 or more employees to discriminate against women because of pregnancy, childbirth, abortion, or the potential for all the above, along with medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth.4 Essentially, pregnancy is considered a temporary disability in the eyes of the law and accommodations must be made should a pregnant women need it.
Though pregnancy or the possibility of pregnancy may protect women at their workplace in the eyes of the law, many inequities persist. Paid leave is not protected through federal law, and many employees
are not even entitled to unpaid time off. Paid leave can include parental and medical leave, along with caregiving leave, deployment-related leave, and safe leave for victims of domestic violence.5
Eleven states have passed family and medical leave laws, but there are no laws at the federal level currently. This lack of protection affects women disproportionally, as women are the ones needing to physically recover from childbirth, and the ones who are more likely to take on caregiving duties, whether to care for children or adults. Yet the protection of paid leave is a men’s issue as much as it is women’s. As gender roles are evolving rapidly, giving fathers time to take care of their children will help the family as a whole.6
Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, the labor force grew significantly, thanks to the increase in labor force participation from women.7 Women’s participation in the labor force reached a peak in the mid-1990s, after slowing in the 1980s and early 1990s. Fewer women under 25 were participating in the workforce in the 1980s and early 1990s, likely due to more women seeking higher education and the recession of 1990 and 1991, which until that point, had the greatest effect on women’s employment over the last 30 years.
Women with children play a significant role in the rise of women’s participation in the labor force. Mothers participating in the workforce rose upwards of 24 percent between 1975 and 1995. This may be due to women being engaged in the workforce before they have children, so instead of becoming homemakers like in the past, they would take a leave of absence and then return to the workforce.
The financial and housing crisis that led to the Great Recession had disproportionate impacts on women and even more so, on minority women. While men made up the majority of lost jobs,23 women felt greater stress about debt when compared to men.8 Women were disproportionately impacted during the economic precarity of the Great Recession, and the same would prove to be true during the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Lost jobs, shuttered schools and childcare centers, future plans put on hold; these are only a few of the complications that women disproportionately faced during the years of the pandemic, many of whom still feel the resounding effects today.
While both men and women were affected by the pandemic, women experienced a larger impact. Globally, women were more likely to be employed in sectors that were disrupted by the lockdown, leading to higher rates of unemployment and a slower re-entry to employment. The gender gap in unemployment in the United States was the widest since 1948. In 2020, the unemployment rates were different among different races as well. White men had the lowest percent increase of unemployment and Hispanic or Latina women had the highest percent increase of unemployment.
Figure 91
Percent Increase in Unemployment Rates, United States, 2020
6.2
4.9
3.6 4.0
The pandemic had a significant impact on sectors that have been labeled ‘recession-proof’ in the past, such as education, some parts of healthcare, and childcare.9 Of 22 million lost jobs, women made up 11.9 million of those lost jobs, indicating the first time in history that women were most impacted through jobs lost during an economic downturn.23 It is important to note that while many women directly lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic, many more were also forced out of their jobs to take on childcare or schooling duties, as many childcare centers and schools were closed. In September of 2020, another half a million women left the labor force when the school year began, with many schools remaining in a virtual environment.
As a result, women’s labor force participation dropped more because of the pandemic, when compared to men. Women were also more affected by an overlap of work responsibilities and care responsibilities, especially for households with children.10 Working mothers experienced high levels of burnout and tended to scale back work hours, change careers, or leave the workforce entirely.23 It is important to note that when women ‘chose’ to change careers or leave the workforce, it was often out of necessity, not desire.
Women tended to make up the ‘essential workers’ during the pandemic, such as in the healthcare profession as well as in lower paying jobs such as grocery store clerks, home health aides, and pharmacy technicians. While still employed, the individuals in these jobs were not immune to risks such as illness and extreme burnout.
Throughout the past 100 years, the role of women in the workforce has changed dramatically. Still, policies put into place decades ago are having reverberating impacts today. Though the marriage bars were over 100 years ago, the industries that single women were forced into are still primarily femaledominated, like clerical work and education.
While the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963, women are still making cents on the dollar that men earn. Women are also more likely to be educated than men—whether a high school diploma or a professional degree. Yet, pay disparity and C-suite disparity continues to exist. These examples, along with many others, point to issues in building wealth that are more systemic and engrained in society.
Enhancing wealth building for women is not as simple as fixing the pay gap (though this action would not hurt). Throughout history, women, and especially women of color, have experienced hurdles and barriers to building equity. While many legal barriers have been removed for women, many systemic barriers remain. For example, women are now legally able to take out a loan without a cosigner, but there is still a societal belief that women should choose caregiving over a career.
Wealth is an inventory of an individual’s assets minus their debts. Debt can stem from loans or through unpaid bills. Credit is an essential part of being able to build wealth through homeownership, buying vehicles, or even renting an apartment. High debt burdens can be detrimental to individuals and their communities.
Though nationally, men have more debt than women, this does not mean that the burden of debt is greater for men. Women reported higher impacts of debt on job performance, family life, and health compared to men.24 More women report carrying unmanagble levels of debt than men, particularly Black women, likely influenced by the gender wage gap and the fact that women’s careers are more likely to be interrupted due to caregiving.11
Student debt is a topic that is currently garnering a lot of interest. While there are a few situations for individuals to have their loans forgiven, most are related to public service work. As college enrollment is steadily increasing, so are the costs of tuition and other related expenses. Since 1964, the cost of tuition, fees, room, and board at a 4-year institution has multiplied almost 2.5 times.12 Women are more likely to
be enrolled in college than men: 48 percent of all women aged 18 to 24 were enrolled in college in 2022, compared to 39 percent of men.13
Figure 92 Men Women
Mean Total Borrowed in Student Loans by Gender and Race/Ethnicty, United States
Latine
White $29,862 $31,346 $35,665 $37,558 $27,452 $27,029 $25,507 $25,252
As a result of having higher college enrollment, women hold about 2/3 of the student loan debt in the United States, which equates out to $929 billion.14 One-third of women expressed sincere concern about their ability to pay off student debt, compared to 18 percent of men.25 Women also take around two years longer than men to repay student loans, likely influenced by the gender pay gap.
The number of people in the United States who are behind on credit card payments has been increasing throughout the years. At the end of 2022, 18.3 million people in the United States were behind on credit card payments. Serious delinquency, or being 90 days or more behind on payments, is highest for the 18-29 age group.
Mixed data exists on whether men or women are more likely to be in credit card debt. Given the realities of the wage gap and that women are more likely to be overrepresented in lower paying jobs, credit card debt likely is a disproportionate burden to these groups, especially women of color. Asian
Nearly half of women surveyed by the Kaiser Family Foundation indicated that they had debt due to medical or dental bills, compared to a third of men in the same survey.15 Black (56 percent) and Hispanic (50 percent) adults also had higher rates of debt than white adults (37 percent). Most debt reported in this survey was under $2,500, but 12 percent reported debt over $10,000.
Motherhood can also influence medical debt. New mothers were found to be twice as likely to have excess medical debt ($250 or more) compared to women who had not given birth recently.16 Medical debt as a new mother can be worsened by lost wages due to a lack of paid leave and loss of income due to caregiving.
Health Care Debt by Gender
Has health care debt Figure 93
Has had health care debt in the past 5 years
The higher rates for medical debt for women are likely related to several issues. The pay gap for women makes it more difficult to pay off outstanding debt. Women also have higher out-of-pocket costs for healthcare even when excluding pregnancy related services,17 and additional health care needed during the pregnancy, childbirth, and post-partum periods adds a significant amount to some women’s health care spending.
Women will also spend an estimated $9,000 on menstrual products over their lifetime.18 Ohio has made progress in helping to reduce these costs through eliminating taxes on feminine hygiene products and requiring all public and private schools that serve girls in grades 6 through 12 to provide free period products.
Most American households’ wealth is held in the form of housing.33 Housing is an essential part of wealth building since it not only provides a service, in the form of shelter, but it often increases in value. Mortgages are the most common form of housing debt, and are agreements between the homeowner and a lender, such as a bank or mortgage lending company, that allow individuals to buy or refinance a home.19 Throughout Central Ohio, most housing units currently have a mortgage, with almost 3 in 4 units in Delaware County having a mortgage. Union County has the lowest rates of housing units with a mortgage at 63 percent.
Housing is considered unaffordable when households are spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing. Fairfield County has the highest percentage of renters living in unaffordable housing, with almost half of renters paying more than 30% of their income on housing.
When it comes to homeowners living in unaffordable housing, Franklin County has the highest rate, with 1 in 5 homeowners living in housing that is considered unaffordable.
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Two notable policies still have resounding effects today on the housing market as it relates to women: the redlining policies that affected the ability for Black individuals to secure mortgages and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which relatively recently allowed women to apply for lines of credit without needing a male co-signer.
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Households Spending More than 30 Percent of Income on Housing Renters in unaffordable housing Homeowners in unaffordable housing
Discriminatory policies, such as redlining, still have resounding effects today. This explicitly racist policy blocked Black households from accessing home mortgages and has been linked to many instances of neighborhood poverty and worse outcomes.20 Redlining was the practice of classifying certain neighborhoods and parts of the city on a four-point scale, from ‘A’ to ‘D,’ with white areas being labeled as ‘A’ and many ethnically diverse and primarily Black areas labeled as ‘D,’ or hazardous. These hazardous areas appeared as red on the maps, coining the term ‘redlining,’ and many mortgage lenders refused to lend for home purchases in these neighborhoods.21 Poor maternal and infant outcomes are some of the resounding effects that are having a profound impact on women, specifically Black and Hispanic women, in formerly redlined neighborhoods. Severe maternal mortality has been linked to neighborhoods previously labeled as ‘hazardous,’ independent of socioeconomic, pregnancy-related, and other factors.22
Almost a hundred years later and women, specifically women of color, are continuing to suffer because of discriminatory policies. Recent research in Massachusetts suggest that women even have to pay more for their homes when compared to men. A gender gap in return on housing investment may exist as well when comparing single female headed households to single male headed households. An analysis gave two reasons for this: that women tended to buy or sell homes without concern for peaks in the housing market and women tended to have worse negotiated outcomes with housing.23
Selling or buying a home while following trends in the housing market can help aid in getting a fair price for a home. Though the analysis found that women tended not to pay close attention to these trends, it was not out of lack of knowledge, but perhaps an external factor such as time constraints. Single female headed households tend to have children, when compared to single male headed households, so home buying or selling may need to rely on external timelines, such as the school year or school breaks, instead of when would be most advantageous to buy or sell a home. This same analysis suggests that
men tended to use more effective real estate agents and that women were less likely to be aggressive in negotiating housing, likely leading to the worse outcomes in negotiating for women when compared to men.
Evictions can cause a cycle of housing instability and can create a negative credit history, making it more difficult to secure housing or loans in the future. Fifty-nine percent of individuals facing eviction in Central Ohio were women, and Black and Latina women made up a disproportionally large part of the number of evictions.24
“When I started writing about these issues, I kind of thought kids would shield families from eviction. But they expose families to eviction.”
Matthew Desmond
Nationally, children under 5 are the demographic most at-risk for eviction. The risk is greatest for young Black children and their mothers, with about a quarter of young Black children living in a household facing an eviction filing. When children are present in a Black female-headed household, 28 percent were facing eviction, compared to 16 percent of households without children. Housing instability before age 5 can have detrimental, long-lasting consequences. It can cause children to experience other stressors, like food insecurity, and it can delay kindergarten readiness and lead to depression and anxiety later in childhood.25
While school-aged children often have resources through the school system to encourage housing stability, younger children often do not have the same resources available. Pediatricians’ offices can be a prime place to provide resources to keep young children in housing. Some cities have also implemented a school-year eviction moratorium to keep families with children housed during the school year. Sealing eviction records can also help families to not get stuck in a cycle of unsafe housing and predatory landlords.
During the pandemic, local, state, and federal policies were quite successful in keeping people housed, but since these policies have been rolled back, eviction rates have rebounded. People of color, specifically Black women, are now facing high rates of eviction and housing instability. In the United States, 1 in 5 renters who are behind on rent payments and most vulnerable to eviction are Black women.26 Additionally, Black women have a substantial wage gap due to gender and race, and redlining policies have also played a key role in higher rates of evictions and housing instability.
Franklin County has the highest rate of evictions in the region, at 7 evictions per 100 renter households, and Delaware County has the lowest rate of evictions at 3.4 evictions per 100 renter households. Central Ohio is also experiencing a serious housing crisis. The supply of housing available is not keeping up with the growth of the region. Columbus has the worst ratio of any major city in Ohio of available housing per extremely low-income renter in need, at 26 affordable units per 100 extremely low-income renters.27
Currently, there is no regional plan to address the housing crisis in Central Ohio.
“Columbus’ affordable housing crisis is real, and the need for affordable housing is greater than ever. However, we cannot discuss solutions without acknowledging the role systemic racism has played in restricting Black and Brown homeownership.”
Shayla D. Favor, Former City of Columbus Councilmember
Complicating matters, Central Ohio is adding more jobs than housing, at a ratio of 0.57 homes per new job. These are the lowest new construction numbers in 5 years, despite the housing shortage.28 When individuals do not live or are unable to live close to their place of work, transportation issues may arise. Almost three percent of women in Central Ohio do not have a personal vehicle available to them, which is the same rate as in Franklin County. When housing is not built near jobs or for the workforce, retaining employment may become an issue to those without reliable transportation.
Senior leadership roles, being at the high-end of a pay scale, and having a respected and successful career often come after years of professional experience. But what happens when those years of professional experience are interrupted by caregiving, whether for children or loved ones? Women are more likely to be caregivers for children or adults, and their careers are often the most affected by caregiving demands.
“[There are] deep-rooted attitudes that a woman should be the primary caregiver, so it is ‘understood’ that her career may have to take a backseat for a while as similar male colleagues move ahead at a more rapid pace.”
Harvard Business Review
More women than men are caregivers nationally with 60 percent of caregivers being women, and women of color caregivers are overrepresented.29 On avaerage, family caregivers spend 26% of their income on caregiving activities, rising to 34% of income for Black caregivers and 47% of income for Hispanic/Latine caregivers. As the population is living longer, and women are having children later, the concept of a Sandwich Caregiver is becoming more common. Sandwich Caregivers are caring for an older adult while raising a child or grandchild. Sandwich Caregivers are more likely to be employed when compared to those caring for one generation. Overall, 60% of caregivers work a full- or part-time job in addition to caregiving duties.
Caregiving activities often come with great economic cost to caregivers. This encompasses lost wages, lost contributions to retirement, reduced wage growth, and missed opportunities for promotions and
career progression. This economic cost of caregiving persists long after the caregiving activities end.30 The employment-related costs for mothers providing unpaid care to children or other care recipients is estimated to average $295,000 over a lifetime. Estimates are higher for mothers with multiple children or for well-educated mothers. Mothers with a college degree averaged $420,000 in lifetime caregiving costs.
“Women work more in ways where they not only don’t get paid but also that supports the paid employment of men by freeing up that time for them to be engaging in work they receive wages for.”
SJ Glynn, Women’s Bureau at the Department of Labor
Not only are women more financially affected when caregiving, true equity can only exist if we look past the financial burden. Caregiving is stressful, and the personal costs cannot be underestimated. Throughout the literature, findings are still consistent in that female caregivers are more stressed, experience poorer mental health, and report higher rates of caregiver burden compared to male caregivers.31 In an international study, long-term informal caregiving was associated with poorer health and wellbeing, and women were more likely than men to be long-term caregivers. Women caregivers were also almost two times more likely to report severe depression and 1.45 times more likely to express difficulties in life tasks compared to non-caregiving women. These outcomes were not seen in the male sample population.32
Increased emotional burden coupled with financial burden including lost income, increased expenses, and career setbacks are a few of the ways that caregiving can affect women disproportionally. Even caring for one’s own children can have similar effects. Women who took beyond a standard maternity leave before returning to the workforce, like taking off a few years to stay home with their children, were less likely to be in senior leadership positions. They alsotook a significant financial hit, earning on average $38,000 less a year than women who had either never left the workforce or those who took a standard maternity leave.33
Based on this data, continuous employment, or limited time off for childbirth, is the fastest way for women to achieve senior leadership positions. As women are more likely to be caregivers of both children and adults, the time taken off to care for loved ones often comes with a financial and emotional burden that can have a significant effect on their wealth building success.
“Childcare is both a workforce itself but it also supports the workforce that’s existing.”
Colin McGinnis, CEO of SproutFive
There are 105,815 children in Central Ohio under the age of 6 in which all parents in the household work. Childcare is vital to ensure that all parents can work if they choose. There are many barriers to access, and childcare is unaffordable for many families. The cost of childcare is a significant barrier to wealth building for women and families.
Ohio’s public reimbursement rates are the lowest of any state, so low that the federal government has mandated that they be raised, which was done in 2024.34 Employers implementing on-site childcare for their employees is a crucial step to reducing barriers to childcare access and cost.
The infrastructure surrounding childcare needs serious repair and rethinking.35 In 2022, turnover in the childcare sector was 65 percent higher than other jobs.36 In the Columbus Metropolitan Statistical Area, there were 3,410 childcare workers as of May of 2023.37 The median hourly wage was $13.27, and the median annual wage was $28,540.
“The infrastructure is really what’s broken – we need more people to work in child care, and we need a career pipeline. People can’t come to work if they don’t have child care. And you can’t have child care if there aren’t workers. The problem just feeds on itself.”
The Washington Post
Based on the living wage calculator, an average childcare worker in Columbus makes $15,000 below what is considered a livable wage in the area. Childcare workers would likely benefit greatly from an increased minimum wage in Ohio, but this is only part of the solution. Creating a career pipeline to the childcare industry through supporting dual enrollment programs in high schools is one crucial step in increasing the workforce.38 Implementing competitive compensation for childcare workers along with supporting the path to the profession is essential in recruiting and retaining the providers who care for working families in Central Ohio.
Whether caregivers or not, many women experience a concept called the ‘invisible load.’ This mental load combines cognitive and emotional labor and manifests as invisible, boundaryless, and enduring.39 It's the emotional weight of being responsible for the needs of your children, partner, or family combined with your own needs and responsibilies. The pandemic made the unequal division of labor that many women experience at home especially clear. Over half a million women left the workforce in September of 2020, around when the schoolyear began, while many schools remained in a virtual environment.
However, the pandemic alone does not account for the mental load that many women shoulder. The invisible load is just that—invisible. This invisible load must be made visible to effectively understand how to reduce the burden that many women feel.
As women are in the background, often organizing their family's lives, it is important to engage men in the process, as many of the policies that can help reduce invisible burden will affect them as well.
For many mothers, the “it takes a village” mindset is no more, leading to parents having to make up for what entire communities used to provide. The essential elements of thriving were built into these villages: safety, inclusivity, acceptance, and importance.40 Now, mothers are responsible for fostering these elements in their own households and/or creating their own village that also implement those same values. Parents have high rates of loneliness (65%) when compared to non-parents (55%), and these rates are even higher for single parents (77%).41 With the addition of the ‘invisible load,’ mothers, and women in general, have lost a sense of connection. Creating opportunities for women to come together and support each other can foster well-being, which can begin with making these opportunities accessible.
Globally, some cities have taken unique approaches to increasing connection among women. In addition to infrastructure that supports access to connection, green spaces have been created that embed “gender equality into infrastructure, legislation, budgets, and beyond.”42 In Vienna, a community was created with women in mind, a planned community named Aspern Seestadt. Plazas and nearby streets are named for women, and the design details of green space are specific to women’s concerns. Wider sidewalks, more benches for resting, amenities within walking distance, and attention to ensuring the landscaping is easy to see around were all features of the park that cater to a woman’s comfort and sense of safety. This space in Vienna was created with historical gender norms in mind: women are more likely to be responsible for childcare and left without the use of a vehicle. So, creating a green space that is safe and accessible provides a good place for women to gather. Cities like Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Barcelona are incorporating “gender mainstreaming” into designing spaces for women and girls which include many of the same aspects as in Vienna.43 Better lighting, high-quality toilets, and seating areas arranged in groups were all aspects of parks that were recommended by women and girls to include.
While creating new, gender mainstreamed green spaces may be a long-term goal, a possible shortterm goal is to promote and advocate for women’s groups that currently do exist to improve connection and decrease loneliness. Providing these groups with resources to be successful is a very tangible way to begin fostering connections.
Accelerators to wealth tend to be the inverse of the barriers that prevent women from effectively building wealth and achieving financial stability. In examining accelerators, we find some very tangible solutions that will help women, men, and families in Central Ohio and beyond.
Increasing the minimum wage in Ohio to $21 will impact approximately 417,000 Central Ohio women working full-time who are likely making below this wage.
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Another 137,000 women who are working part-time in the region would likely greatly benefit from a minimum wage increase as well.
A livable hourly wage in Columbus for a single person with no children working full-time is almost $21 an hour, or almost $44,000 a year.44 With the addition of children into the household, the livable wage goes up to accommodate for childcare and other increased costs. Ohio’s current minimum wage is $10.70 per hour. While the 2006 Ohio Constitutional Amendment that set the minimum wage requires it to adjust with inflation each year, the current wage set in 2025 is barely over half of what is needed to be a living wage.
While increasing the minimum wage in Ohio will require new policies, there are several smaller steps to be taken in the meantime. Partnerships can be made with local employers who predominantly employ women to examine if they are paying their workers a livable wage, currently at $21 dollars per hour. Public pay audits were required at the federal level but have since been rolled back. State or locally mandated audits would provide some accountability to local employers to examine pay equity within their companies.
Women in Central Ohio make, on average, 78.9 cents to every dollar that Central Ohio men make. The pay gap is not unique to Central Ohio—women in Ohio make 79.5 cents per dollar that Ohio men make, and women nationally make 81.4 cents per dollar. In short, the gender wage gap is wider in Ohio than it is nationally. Comprehensive pay data collection is the first step to addressing the wage gap that exists not only across gender, but across race and ethnicity as well. Federally, companies with over 100 employees must make pay information across several categories accessible to their employees. The requirement was rolled back and does not appear to have been reinstated in 2025.45 However, the current Executive Order of “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” put forth during the second Trump administration leaves it unclear on if reporting will remain mandatory. Regardless, more pay transparency is needed. The United Kingdom has an initiative that requires companies of 250 employees or larger to publish a gender pay gap report that includes pay metrics and working hour comparisons.46 More effective federal and state policies are needed to enforce closing the wage gap. Policies that help women remain in the workforce and advancement opportunities are needed to raise the wages of women and promote the economic security of families.47
“All boats rise when we talk about pay equity, it’s not just about closing the pay gap for women. It’s about ensuring everyone will make more – it doesn’t matter who you are.”
Lourdes Barroso de Padilla, Columbus City Council
Locally, Columbus passed a salary history ban that went into effect on March 1, 2024. This legislation was a step in the effort to combat pay inequity for all women, but particularly for women of color.48 The legislation was supported in part through women sharing their personal stories to Columbus City Council. Women described being paid less than male counterparts because they shared what they had previously made at other jobs when asked in job interviews. While a salary history ban could help narrow the pay gap, more work needs to follow.
Requiring employers to include salary ranges in job postings can be an effective way to promote pay transparency and bolster negotiation efforts.49 Salary transparency benefits both potential employees and employers; including salary information in job postings can help to cut down on costs-per-click, thus reducing recruiting costs.50
In Ohio and 38 other states, childcare costs more than in-state college tuition.51 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services considers childcare to be affordable if it costs no more than 7 percent of a family’s income.52
In family households with children, none of the counties have a median income high enough to make the average cost of childcare “affordable,” despite several counties having a six-figure median household income. The results are even more concerning for single women with children. These women are likely paying one-fifth to almost one-half of their salaries toward childcare.
Estimated Percent of Household Income Spent on Child Care, by Household Type, by County Families
One-third of parents with young children in Ohio say that they have serious problems paying for housing and nearly one half have serious problems paying credit card bills and other debt.53 Parents in Ohio are also reporting that they are buying fewer groceries, skipping medical care, and having issues accessing high-quality childcare. The high cost of childcare continues to add to the burden that parents in Ohio are carrying.
Women are more likely to be caregivers of both adults and children. There are over 100,000 children under the age of six in Central Ohio who will need childcare due to all parents in the house working. Childcare and early childhood education is a critical necessity for working parents. The cost of childcare is a significant barrier to wealth building for women and families. Over 60 percent of non-full time working moms surveyed by Groundwork stated that they would go back to work if their child had access to quality childcare at a reasonable cost. Ohio’s public reimbursement rates for childcare are the lowest of any state, so low that the federal government has mandated that they be raised to the 50th percentile, which was done in 2024.54 Increasing public childcare eligibility can also help to reduce the burden of the cost of childcare on many of Ohio’s families. Around ten percent of parents in Ohio indicated that they had to change jobs due to issues with childcare. Black families are disproportionately affected by the lack of affordable childcare, with 20.5 percent of Black families indicating job changes due to childcare, compared to 9 percent of white families.55 Currently, families living at or near 145 percent of the poverty level are eligible for vouchers for childcare.56
“Our country cannot function without a strong child care system. Child care is vital to the health and well-being of our nation’s families, our businesses, and our economy.”
Xavier Becerra, HHS Secretary
The pandemic exacerbated the unaffordability and reliability of childcare for many families. Onsite childcare could provide a solution to families needing reliable accommodation for children. It is also a large expense to companies and often comes with multiple liability issues. Building an onsite facility can be costly and time-consuming, and hiring proper staff and maintaining state ratios and regulations can create added burdens for companies. While several large companies currently offer onsite childcare, further investigation is needed to figure out if this is a workable option for employers.
Around 4.4 million workers, or 77 percent of the workforce, do not have paid family leave in Ohio. Another 60 percent do not have access to unpaid leave.57 Paid leave benefits are an essential piece to achieving pay equity, reducing financial insecurity, and increasing labor force participation, on top of allowing families to care for themselves or loved ones.
Franklin County revised their family leave policies during COVID and expanded paid family leave and caregiver leave to be 8 weeks paid at 100%. Even more recently, Columbus City Council expanded their paid family leave policies for City of Columbus employees. Now, city employees will be offered 12 weeks of paid leave at 100% of their salary, compared to the 6 weeks of parental and 4 weeks of caregiver leave previously offered at 70 percent of a worker’s salary.58
There are still no state-wide paid family leave laws in Ohio. Paid family leave laws for state employees were recently updated from four paid weeks to 12 weeks, but there is still room for improvement, especially in the private sector.59 Engaging with private employers to examine and update their paid leave policies is another essential part to ensuring that all women (and men) have access to paid leave benefits.
In the survey of Central Ohio women, most indicated that $1,000 a month or less would change their financial prospects. An extra $12,000 a year is all that most women indicated that the needed to be financially comfortable. Tax credits may be one solution to help women achieve more financial stability.
Tax credits are used to incentivize behaviors that bolster the economy, such as in retirement and making higher education more attainable.60 With this same argument, the tax code should also reflect the vital role that childcare plays in a parent’s ability to participate in the labor force and that it is a sizable portion of a family’s budget. There are two types of tax credits that affect families with children—the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC).
The CDCTC is used to claim a certain percentage of care expenses for children. The credit is currently around 35% of what can be claimed on taxes (a credit of up to $1,050 per dependent) depending on income level. During COVID, the credit was made refundable, and the amount available increased. This has since been rolled back, but bringing back a version of this legislation will help many working families to offset the inflated cost of childcare. The CDCTC has also not been amended in two decades or indexed for inflation, so an updated federal policy or a state-supplemented policy is crucial as childcare costs have risen sharply.
The Child Tax Credit (CTC) is available to parents with children under 17. This credit became refundable and was increased under the American Rescue Plan during the pandemic and has since been rolled back. Expanding this credit to be refundable and more generous will have a significant impact on families with children, in fact it reduced child poverty to a record low of 5.2 percent in 2021.61
Central Ohio is made up of seven counties: Delaware, Fairfield, Franklin, Licking, Madison, Pickaway, and Union. These seven counties represent rural, suburban, and urban areas of Ohio. Examining the demographics of Central Ohio’s women is crucial to assessing the current financial health of women in this area.
Wealth consists of all the assets of worth owned by a person, corporation, community, or country minus their debts. Wealth can be a cushion for unexpected hardships due to illness or injury and allow for individuals to continue meeting their basic needs, like food and shelter, without an interruption of payments. Accumulated wealth can also aid if wages are lost due to a health event and can be passed to the next generation in the form of resources.69
Over one million women and girls call Central Ohio home. Franklin County has the highest population of women and girls at 669,502, representing 51 percent of the county’s population. While the age distributions in each county are even, Delaware County has a slightly higher percentage of girls under 19 and Madison County has a slightly higher percentage of older women. Overall, around one-fourth of Central Ohio’s female population are girls under 19 and 15 percent are older women aged 65 and over.
Three-fourths of Central Ohio’s women and girls are white, but around 17 percent are Black or African American alone. Nearly one-third of Central Ohio women and girls are BIPOC. In Franklin County, 22 percent of women are Black, and 10 percent are Asian. Black individuals, especially Black women, have struggled to build wealth. In the United States, Black women possess the lowest level of wealth compared to white men, white women, and Black men.70 The intersection of race and gender for Black women also has a significant impact on their financial wellbeing. Black women are subjected to the effects of racial and gender discriminatory policies, which has affected their ability to effectively build wealth.
Almost half of Central Ohio’s households are married-couple households. Another sizable portion are nonfamily households. Nonfamily households can consist of a householder living alone or where the householder shares the home exclusively with those to whom they are not related. Single heads of households make up around 18 percent of households in the region, 13 percent of those being female headed.
Household Structure, Central Ohio Region
In all counties except for Franklin, at least half of residents live in married-couple households. In Franklin County, nonfamily households make up the largest share of household types. Franklin County is home to The Ohio State University’s main campus, which may explain this large share of nonfamily housing structures.
Every county has at least 30 percent of households having one or more people under 18 years of age. Delaware County has the highest percentage, at 40.6 percent, and Franklin County has the lowest percentage at 29.7 percent. Almost two-thirds of female-headed households in each county have at least one child under 18 in the household as well. Franklin County has the highest percentage of femaleheaded households living with children at 66.9 percent, but other counties are only behind by a few percentage points.
More married couples own their homes instead of renting. However, in Franklin County, 1 in 4 married couple households rent their homes instead of owning them. This may be due to the prohibitive cost of homes or a low stock of homes available. Male householders without a spouse present had higher rates of owning homes compared to female householders. In most counties, female householders had 10% lower rates of owning their homes compared to male householders. Householders not living alone may include individuals with roommates who are not related to them, which may explain the high rates of renting in Franklin County.
Homeownership can be a central part of building wealth. The post-World War II period saw the expansion of cities into the suburbs and created a need for more housing.71 This avenue has not always been open to people of color, with policies such as redlining setting many people in these communities back many years on their path to wealth building through owning their own homes.
Homeownership was found to be a primary source of wealth for women in Central Ohio. An earlier
survey found that around 75 percent of Central Ohio women surveyed owned their homes, but that racial disparities did exist in homeownership. White women had higher rates of homeownership compared to Black women in Central Ohio. Homeownership was also identified as a major source of debt, with around 30 percent of women surveyed reporting that their mortgage debts were over $210,000.72
In Central Ohio, girls have a higher graduation rate than boys, which is consistent with the rest of the state. The graduation rate for all students is 89.1 percent—girls in the Class of 2021 graduated at a rate of 91.9 percent, compared to boys at 86.6 percent.
Statewide, more Ohio women than men hold degrees at all levels of education, including high school. Only two counties in Central Ohio do not follow this pattern: Delaware and Union counties.
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The correlation between education, income, and health outcomes is well-known and often works in a positive relationship: as education increases, so do income and positive health outcomes. Education level has also been linked to not only the level of earnings, but the growth of those earnings as well (Hoffmann, et al., 2020).
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Percent Aged 25+ with a College Degree
Few data on how religious identity affects wealth accumulation exists. One study did find differences in homeownership rates and home value among differed religious groups in Canada. For instance, Jewish people, who were the highest earning group, had lower rates of homeownership, and Muslim people had lower ownership rates as well, likely due to many being first- or second-generation immigrants.73
Approximately 196,000 immigrants live in the Columbus Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all the Central Ohio counties listed in Appendix A and includes Hocking, Licking, Morrow, and Perry as well. Of the data that is available for a few of these counties, around half of immigrants are naturalized citizens. Franklin County has the highest number of immigrants of any of the counties at approximately 159,000, with about half being women.
Around 1 in 10 of immigrants in Franklin County are children under the age of 18, and about three-fourths of immigrants are working age (25 to 64). One in five immigrants do not have a high school education, and over half have at least an associate degree. Immigrants in Franklin County make up almost 5 percent of the workforce and have a 3 percent unemployment rate, with educational services, health care, and social services being the largest employment sector. Around 1 in 5 immigrant households live in poverty in Franklin County, and these rates increase for female-headed households or households with children.
Wealth accumulation for immigrants not only helps them to migrate from their home country to another country or region, but it also helps to set them up for success once they arrive at their destination. Accumulation of tangible assets, like home- or business ownership often holds a particular significance for immigrants as a sense of belonging in their new community.74 Often, immigrants can be affected by the long-lasting effects of discriminatory policies such as redlining. Legal status can also influence wealth accumulation for immigrants. Legality affects the type and quality of education and employment that immigrants can secure.
Throughout Central Ohio, the median income for women hovers around $50,000, except for Delaware County at $70,896. Yet the wage gap between male and female workers is highest in Delaware County. In Delaware County, women make 72.8 cents to every dollar that a male worker in the same county makes. The lowest wage gap is in Franklin County, where women make 87 cents for every dollar that a man makes. Joining Cincinnati and Toledo, Columbus passed a Salary History Ban in March 2024. This ban prevents employers from asking potential employees about their previous salaries, benefits packages, and other compensation.75 The legislation hopes to reduce the pay gap between men and women, as many women shared examples of how they are paid less than their male counterparts because they were upfront with how much they made in prior jobs.
The labor force participation rate for women in Central Ohio hovers around 80 percent for the region. Interestingly, women with children have slightly higher labor participation rates than women overall. This could suggest that women with children must be in the workforce to be able to pay for expenses, due to the excessive costs of basic needs and care.
Women with both young children under 6 years of age and school-aged children 6 to 17 years of age have the lowest labor force participation rates when compared to women who have only young children or school-aged children. This lower participation rate may be due to women choosing to opt out of the workforce to stay home with young children or women being forced out of the workforce because of the prohibitive cost and lack of availability in childcare.76 Of women with children, those with schoolaged children have the highest labor force participation rates, with rates ranging from 78.9 percent to 87.3 percent. These percents are the highest of those with children likely due to the decreased need for childcare.
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Labor Force Participation Rate Women Women With Children Under 18 Years
Given the wage gap, increased amounts of debt, and added financial strain of caregiving, it is not surprising—yet disheartening—that women are more likely to be living in poverty when compared to men. Living in poverty decreases an individual’s ability to achieve financial security and effectively build wealth. Except for children, women across the lifespan are more likely to be living in poverty than men in Central Ohio. Historically, the distribution of resources is closely linked with the distribution of power. This legacy of inequality, which has resulted in the gender wage gap and a long history of discriminatory policies is likely the origin of women being more likely to live in poverty.
Female-headed households disproportionately make up the largest share of households living in poverty, despite being a smaller share of the population of Central Ohio.
Living in poverty is associated with a myriad of poor outcomes. Individuals in poverty are more likely to experience mental illness, obesity, substance use, and have lower life expectancies. In addition to poorer health outcomes, individuals in poverty also experience issues securing housing, accessing health care, and unsafe neighborhoods.77
In Central Ohio, almost half of women have two vehicles available to them. However, just under 3 percent do not have a vehicle available. Owning a vehicle is not only a way to get to work and perform daily tasks, but it can also be an asset to building wealth.
Women in Central Ohio were more likely than men to carpool to work, versus driving alone. The vast majority (91 percent) who indicated that they use a car, truck, or van to get to work were still driving alone.
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Number of Vehicles Available to Women in Central Ohio
Globally, women tell a different story about public transit than in Central Ohio. Women in countries in the Middle East and Africa have stated that a reliable public transit system is essential for them to participate in the economy.78 When women travel, they are more likely than men to use public transit and walking instead of car, motorcycle, and bicycle.79 The same is not seen in Central Ohio.
Rates of public transportation use were the same for men and women in Central Ohio at 1.3 percent. Women in Franklin County, Central Ohio’s most urban county and the one with the most public transit infrastructure, are not taking public transportation at a much higher rate, with only 1.8 percent of women in this county using public transit for work. These numbers are lower than Cuyahoga and Hamilton Counties, two other large urban counties in Ohio.
“If women feel disproportionately responsible for the household activities and for parenting, working remotely makes life a whole lot more flexible.”
Jerry Jacobs, University of Pennsylvania
More Central Ohio women than men are working from home, lining up with national trends.80 Working remotely hit an all-time high for both men and women during the pandemic, but women have remained in a remote capacity at higher levels than men, likely due to the disproportionately divided domestic tasks that women face, including childcare.
Access to employer-provided benefits, like health insurance, are major contributors to the wealth of their employees, cutting down on costs for employees. Health insurance can help to cushion costs from unexpected hardships due to illness or injury and can also allow individuals to keep up to date with preventative care.
In Central Ohio, the health insurance rates for women were similar to men except in the age range of 19 years to 44 years. In some counties, this difference was almost 8 percent less for men.
The percent of women who are dealing with problems paying medical bills is higher than men experiencing the same problem in Franklin County. Almost 1 in 4 women in Franklin County are unable to pay their medical bills, compared to 18 percent of men.
Women in Franklin County also have higher rates of some concerning health statistics compared to men.81 While women have lower rates of binge drinking and misusing pain medication compared to men, they are more likely to smoke or use e-cigarettes compared to men in Franklin County. Women are more likely to be obese compared to men and to also be in poor/fair overall health. The mental health of women in Franklin County is also poorer compared to men—higher shares of women reported 14 or more mentally distressed days in the past month compared to men. Given that women are more likely to be caregivers, have lower wages, and more issues with paying down medical bills, among many other disparities, this statistic is not surprising but still concerning. Given this, women also have slightly higher rates for loneliness compared to men, with over 1 in 4 women in Franklin County reporting that they were experiencing feelings of loneliness.
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