Sallie Krawcheck: Why Trump Could Benefit Women in Business

The key to do this is by leveraging the resources women have.

“We control $5 trillion of investable assets, we direct 80% of consumer spending, we’re more than half of the workforce,” Krawcheck writes. “We’ve got a lot of power.”

While women have “a lot of power,” it is not yet equal.

“[I]n a capitalist society, money is power,” Krawcheck writes. “As noted, women have a lot of money. But we don’t (yet) have as much as the guys do… and we won’t be fully equal with men until we are financially equal with men.”

Krawcheck put together a list for women on how they can assert the power they do have–here are some of them:

• Mentor other women.
• Amplify what other women say in meetings.
• Point out when the words people use to compliment men (“aggressive” or “go-getter”) are used to put down women.
• Don’t work at the company that doesn’t “get it” on making the work environment one in which women can be successful.
• Think hard about not joining or quitting a company that has no successful senior females running P&Ls.
• Invest money in the markets. This will give women the opportunity to earn a higher return and close their personal “gender investing gap,” Krawcheck writes.
• Donate to a female candidate whose views line up with theirs in the next election.
• Encourage other women to run for office.
• Run for office.
• Agitate for mandated parental leave. “Maybe it won’t happen at the national level (leaving us as the only developed country in the world without one); but let’s also fight at the company level (where only some 21% of companies have one … despite the fact that these leaves pay for themselves pretty quickly),” Krawcheck writes.

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