Leaning In and Out

A few weeks ago in her article in “Superwoman? Where?” Tracey Spicer highlighted the frustrating challenge of women and superannuation. Read it here if you haven't yet. She hit the nail on the head in so many ways and I commend her for it and her role as Super Champion for International Women’s Day. We need high profile women like Tracey to speak up on this topic.

Allow me to delve a little deeper into these issues.

For women who remain single, childless and independent for the duration of their lives it is stating the bleeding obvious to them about the need to provide for their retirement.

More complicated is when we are in relationships. Which, let’s face it, is a good proportion of us at some point in our lifetimes. People tend to see financial advisers as a couple when they are a couple. Not always, but we are talking generalities here so bear with me.

When a couple is working out what their income sources in retirement are, they look at the picture as a whole. If she has $28,000 in super and he has $500,000 then the income is worked out on the total asset position of $528,000. At that point, assuming the couple is in a committed relationship, nobody’s worrying too much about the inequity.

The kicker comes when relationships fall apart. Suddenly, for reasons of guilt, greed or expediency the contribution of the non-or part time working spouse can lose its value in the eyes of the career partner.

Of course, this is meant to be dealt with in divorce settlements but all the statistics show that men recover financially a helluva lot quicker that women if there is disparity in earning power. I am not saying that men don’t suffer financial consequences – very few people emerge from the financial settlement process saying “Gee that was just fantastic and I am so happy with the outcome of my divorce” – but on separation the reality check that you don’t take your partner’s income and future earning capacity with you hits home.

In the aftermath of divorce no decision you have made is left unquestioned. I have spent many hours asking myself how and why I found myself to be in the position where, when equally educated and qualified as my ex-husband, his earnings are exceptional and mine are, well, not so much. What I came to is this. I did not value my human capital.

I once heard that the biggest and best asset you have is your human capital – the talent, experience and qualifications you build up over a lifetime that add up to your ability to earn an income. Yes, there is huge structural, gender and historical issues that come into play to make the issue a complex one for women but we need to be asking ourselves some hard questions, too.

When I hear Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook and author of a recent book called “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead”, talking about women “leaning in” to their careers and not “leaving before you leave” I know exactly what she is on about. I was “leaning out” in the early days of my career with a deep desire for children and to be a homemaker. My behaviour, actions and decisions around my career have had a consequence. Although I made them for what I thought was “for the good of the family” I paid a price – in financial terms as well as self-esteem and confidence.

Of course, not everything comes down to the mighty dollar. Life is more than just some black and white number representing earning capacity or a superannuation balance. I loved being home raising my children in their early years and I still love it now when they are older.  But I am much more conscious of the consequences of my decisions than I was when I was 27 and pregnant with my first child.

In my opinion, having this discussion with future generations is key. Younger women can learn from our wisdom and different experiences. I want my daughters and nieces to understand, protect and treasure the value of their education, their job choices and opportunities and the huge potential that resides within each of them.

I’ll end with where Tracey got to – Let’s pop our undies over the top of our clothes and become real Super Women!