While our country has seen progress in bridging the gender gap of financial success, the data demonstrate that we still have a long way to go. On average, women still earn $0.81 for every dollar a man makes, and when disaggregated by racial identity, women of color earn even less than this average. In terms of financial literacy, the TIAA Institute found that women received a lower score on its annual Personal Finance Index than men. Analyses by Fidelity Investment and NerdWallet revealed that women report feeling less confident in investing than men.

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Our financial literacy program, and its complementary mobile app Her Future, aims to change girls’ and young women’s attitudes towards, and emotional relationship with, money so they feel confident to pursue their aspirations. Our curriculum presents a new reality to students, encouraging them to move away from thinking of money through a scarcity lens toward one of abundance.

Tailored to meet the financial realities of girls and young women, particularly those from underserved communities, our financial literacy program guides students through exercises in saving, budgeting, building credit, investing, and financial topics that girls and young women don’t typically learn through public education.

Highlights

• Students in our financial literacy program learned about investing in the stock market. Using what they learned, they bought their own stocks and saw a 54% rate of return.

• In Summer of 2022, middle school students in our summer camp developed real business ideas and presented prototypes to financial industry professionals during a market day exhibition. The 20 proposed businesses included beauty products, food items, card games, and even nonprofit initiatives.

• Student quotes: Girls Inc. has helped me…”feel better about money,” “learn new budgeting systems and know more about money. Especially for college,” and “start my path to save money.”