The Arizona Council on Economic Education is hitting the books, but not as you might think. They’re trading sandy text books for practical business and financial advice, specifically targeted at young Valley females who might not still visit a board their house. The “Invest in Girls” system, hatched by ACEE, aims to offer high school girls to finance’s major tournaments, where women’s representation is greatly lacking, according to ABC15.
Danielle Gonzales, a Franklin Police and Fire High School sophomore and programme member, gave the ladle to ABC15, saying, “Actually, it’s been remarkable”! Her excitement was stifled as she examined the inner workings of sites like Charles Schwab and people’s work. The education swing isn’t only for kicks, it’s to give these ladies the lowdown on high- finance domains – portfolio managing, corporate finance, and even cyber protection, all places where people are hitting well below the batting average in gender diversity on the industry.
Women hold a paltry 26% of professional finance jobs, a figure that falls when zooming in on executive leadership positions for women of color, who hardly registers at 4%. ACEE’s President and CEO, Elena Zee, chimed in on the importance of such an initiative, declaring, “We firmly believe in the potential of every young woman to shape her financial destiny,” as relayed by azecon.org.
Heidi Bonfante, a teacher at Franklin Police and Fire High School, who noticed the transformative impact on her students as the winds of change blow in terms of financial understanding and life-readyness, was highlighted by the enthusiasm of the ABC15 coverage. Dr. Mary L. Rigdon’s poignant words at the program’s recent event, “Change the system, not the women”, underscored the dire need for structural recalibration in the face of entrenched gender income disparities. According to Gigdon, the sobering statistics that bleed women dry to the tune of hundreds of thousands over a lifetime rocket into millions for Black and Hispanic women fatten the wallets of men with 18 cents more per dollar than women.
Embracing the cause, the AZ based initiative has garnered support from prime local educational leadership figures, like principal Lorenzo Cabrera, and superintendent Thea Andrade, beaming with pride for Phoenix Union’s plum position as the program’s Arizona launching pad, as noted by azecon.org. Supporters of this audacious program, which empowers young Arizonian women to confidently clutch their financial futures, include the University of Arizona Center for the Philosophy of Freedom, Arizona Bank & Trust, and a number of other financial institutions.