Women Money Power: The Rise and Fall of Economic Equality

Business journalist Cox has spent more than 15 years examining how women’s financial situations often affect their personal agency and power. When she had her daughter, she became a freelance journalist because traditional work arrangements and lack of childcare access made work difficult to juggle as a new parent. At one point, a noted billionaire told Cox in off-the-record conversation that women—the ones he thought were less motivated at work after having a child—were to blame for the gender pay gap. His comment infuriated and provoked her to tell economic story of modern Western women. This book shares Cox’s findings after several years of researching the names and stories of women who are cultural and economic pioneers—to name a few, Pauli Murray, Katharine Dexter McCormick, Shirley Chisholm, and Mae Krier, who was one of the original “Rosie the Riveters” and was recently honored with a Congressional Gold Medal. Cox emphasizes that reproductive freedom affects economic freedom for women and also argues that recent legal restrictions have suppressed the path to gender equality.