HEATHER McCULLOCH
Entrepreneur-In-Residence The Aspen Institute / Financial Security Program
Researcher Gender Economic Equity
MONEY TALK / What if the Economy Worked for Women
Why building a gender-equitable economy is an economic imperative
This talk by Heather McCulloch, senior fellow at the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, and founder of Women in the Economy, will explain why the economic prosperity of women needs to be a national priority. She'll discuss the many ways our policies determine winners and losers in our economy and how key aspects of our economic system—labor, tax, credit, retirement—don't work for women because they were never designed to do so. She'll explain why the prosperity of women is now an economic imperative because women's contributions—as workers, breadwinners, entrepreneurs and investors—have increased exponentially in recent years. She'll describe a path forward based on in-depth interviews with more than 150 women across the country, lifting up solutions shared by women across race and ethnicity, class, geography and party affiliation. Finally, she'll explain why building a gender-equitable is a win-win for families, businesses and the U.S. economy.
BIO
Heather McCulloch is an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program (Aspen FSP) and a national thought leader on gender economic equity. She recently launched the Women in the Economy (WE) project at Aspen FSP, a research and action initiative to inform the design of a gender-equitable economy based on the insights, wisdom, and lived experience of working women across America. Heather has more than two decades of experience working as an advocate and thought leader to close the racial and gender wealth gaps and build an equitable economy. Previously, she founded and led Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap (CWWG), a multiracial/ethnic, cross-sector network of leaders working together to transform public policies and systems to advance gender economic equity. Prior to starting CWWG, she was the founder of Asset Building Strategies, a consulting firm that supported nonprofit, philanthropic, public, and private-sector leaders to advance policies and strategies to build the financial security of low-wealth families; and a founding staff member of the national nonprofit, PolicyLink.
Her insights have been covered in major news publications including CNN Business, Fast Company, The Hill, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, NPR Marketplace, Slate, and USA Today; and she has appeared in two documentaries, The Great American Lie, by award-winning Filmmaker, Jennifer Siebel Newsom and Lifting Up What Works: A History of the First 22 Years of PolicyLink. She earned an MSc in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and a BA in Political Economy, with highest honors, from the University of California, Berkeley. She has taught two graduate-level courses on equitable community and regional development at U.C. Berkeley with now San Francisco Foundation CEO Fred Blackwell.