Brice Wallace
Not every business conference features lyrics from the singer Lizzo.
But a keynote speaker at the Salt Lake Chamber’s Women & Business Conference told the audience that it’s “about damn time” that women get more involved in money issues as a way of bettering themselves, women as a group, their communities and the world.
“Not only is it time, but rather … it’s about damn time,” Jacki Zehner, founder of both SheMoney, a consultancy and content platform, and ShePlace, a Utah-based network and digital platform, told the crowd. “It’s about damn time for women to flourish, to prosper and to thrive.”
A self-described “kick-ass woman,” Zehner summarized her talk in two words: “Money matters.” Money is a resource, a tool, a medium of exchange and a type of energy “that comes in and moves out to enable us to live our lives and help us, and others, thrive,” Zehner said, adding that she believes that “where money flows, things grow.”
“Money matters a lot,” she said. “Money — how we earn it, spend it, invest it, give it — is the great and unoptimized accelerator on this path towards improving the lives of women and families.”
Zehner called upon women to be engaged with their financial resources and work toward making Utah “the best place in the country for women to work, live and thrive.”
Zehner lamented that in various studies, Utah ranked at the bottom among states for gender equity. “Dead last. The bottom. Not even close, like really dead-last,” she said. That is harming the state’s ability to attract and retain world-class female talent and great businesses to the state, she stressed.
But she urged the crowd to use that ranking to activate and motivate people to change it. She suggested that they pressure legislators to support women and children and called upon women to run for and win elected positions.
“And I would ask you, if you’re sick of this narrative — because I think that some people are, and I am, too, that we’re this dead-last state — I’m also asking us collectively to say, ‘Who is it serving to minimize this story?’ And I say, ‘Let’s own it, and let’s do everything we can do to change it.’
“And I really do invite us all, especially our political and businesses leaders, to be motivated, not shamed and not blamed, but motivated enough to commit to do better when it comes to woman and narrowing the gaps, knowing that it will be good for Utah — full stop, no further explanations required.”
Zehner listed several statistics showing how dire the situation is. The United States is 43rd in the world for gender equality. The gender pay gap is about 83 percent for white women and 68 percent for women of color. Women hold about one-fourth of C-suite positions. Less than 2 percent of philanthropic funding goes to organizations that serve women and girls. Sole women founders receive less than 2 percent of venture capital dollars, and that number shrinks to less than 0.2 percent for women of color.
All of that is despite women controlling up to 33 percent of household financial assets and making 80 percent of consumer purchasing decisions. She acknowledged that the reasons for those numbers are “complex.”
“The lack of financial knowledge and agency transcends asset level,” she added. “Whether you have $5, negative $5 or $50 million, it doesn’t matter. Issues around money are there, no matter what level of money we’re actually talking about.”
Zehner said she has collected and studied gender equity data for two decades.
“It is unacceptable to me — as a woman, as a human — that those numbers are not only true, but the statistics are quite literally about millions of women — us, our friends, our daughters, our mothers, our sisters — whose lives are negatively impacted in terms of safety, security, access to opportunity because of gender,” she said. “And it literally breaks my heart.”
Not only can having enough financial resources and financial agency aid women’s individual spiritual, relational, intellectual and other elements of their lives, it can benefit families, communities and the world, she said.
“And I believe that greater financial equity will lead to an acceleration towards more holistic gender equity,” she said.
The event included other keynotes and several breakout sessions aimed at helping women “Thrive in the Hive,” which was the event’s theme.
“When we work together, we can accomplish remarkable things, and create a community where everyone has the opportunity to grow and flourish,” said event chair Vicki Varela. “At the same time, we can learn how to become the best versions of ourselves and truly succeed in all areas of life.”
The conference also featured a luncheon honoring the Athena Leadership Award recipient, Amanda Covington, chief corporate affairs officer at The Larry H. Miller Co. The award is presented annually to an active member of the Salt Lake Chamber who demonstrates excellence, creativity and initiative in business, provides valuable service by devoting time and energy to improve the quality of life for others in the community, and assists women in reaching their full leadership potential.
The event also included the presentation of Pathfinder Award recipients, presented annually to community leaders who create new paths promoting the development and recognition of women in business. This year’s recipients are Lucy Cardenas, president and owner, The Red Iguana Restaurants; Natalie El-Deiry, director of immigration and new American integration, Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity; Kaitlin Eskelson, president and CEO, Visit Salt Lake; Deneiva Knight, external affairs director, Comcast; and Pauline Ploquin, president and partner, Struck.