STUDY: Single Women Of Color Age 36-49 Have Median Wealth Of Just $5

According to a report released by the Insight Center for Community Economic Development this week, there is a vast discrepancy in wealth between single women of color and single white women.

The study, "Lifting As We Climb: Women of Color, Wealth, and America's Future," found that while the median net worth of single white women ages 36-49 is $42,600 -- 61 percent of the median wealth for same-aged, single white men -- single women of color in the same age group have a median wealth of just $5.

Black and Hispanic women are also drastically worse off in a broader age bracket, with almost half of single black and single Hispanic women ages 18-64 reporting zero or negative wealth (46 percent and 45 percent, respectively), compared with 23 percent of single white women, according to the report.

The financial situations of single women of color are so precarious, the study found, that just one unpaid sick day or appliance repair would send about half of them into debt.

And while marriage appears to ameliorate some economic hardship for both men and women across races, the data indicate that the positive effect of marriage on net worth is particularly amplified for black and Hispanic women.

The report offers a number of possible explanations for the wealth gap, including prior and current institutional factors (such as wage disparities and access to fringe benefits in the workplace), as well as a higher rate of being targeted by predatory lenders. (A recent study by the National Council of Negro Women and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the authors point out, found that across income groups, black and Hispanic women were much more likely to be caught up in expensive loans than white women.)

But a number of policies, the authors argue -- enhanced employment opportunities, support for self-employment and microenterprise, incentives to save and stronger social insurance -- would go a long way toward closing the wealth chasm:

"It is the author's intent and sincere hope that shining a spotlight on women of color and wealth becomes a catalyst for policy change - change that will lift women of color as they continue their climb toward economic security. Their futures are inextricably linked with the economic future of the nation."

Read the full report here [PDF].

Comments

[J E T]

08:48 AM on 03/23/2010

Wow..i'm not sure if I should start pursuing white women exclusively or if this shows that per this sample for the studyl; black women have made poorer decisions.

[DOR HK]

03:07 AM on 03/19/2010

Question: What portion of those $5 net wealth folks have a credit card?
Second question: Of those that do, what portion understand how much interest they pay?

One of the great failing of the US education system in the last 60 years was the complete lack of any attention to personal financial planning.

[chocktaw]

09:08 PM on 03/15/2010

Just once, I'd love to see an article that talked about something negative about Asian women. Or Hispanic women. Or Native American women. Pretty much every month without fail, some media outlet posts some article that seems to suggest that there is something wrong with being a Black woman, or hey "it sucks to be you." Enough already.

[Sienna Faith]

01:07 AM on 03/17/2010

quotes from the article: "single women of color ... hispanic women ... single hispanic women."

hmmm. plain english words like "women of color" and "hispanic women" just flew right over the radar, but this tendency to conveniently overlook or twist things in order to be the only/biggest victim ever is quite, uhm, interesting.

wanting "to see an article that talked about something negative" regarding females of other ethnicities is amazing, and too bad that would never solve a thing or make a person feel better about themselves or empowered in the least!

if this article is being erroneously characterized as some sort of attack or solely about bw, anyone who'd taken the time to actually read the entire report, instead of merely reacting, would know IT IS NEITHER and discusses asian and native american females also.

[Ythisagain]

06:36 PM on 03/13/2010

THE BLACK WOMAN WILL RISE! This article to me was informative and very racist to me. Why does it always have to be black vs white all the time? why could'nt the article say," The black woman is behind when it comes to net worth." This article made me picture being sold at the market place again.

[steveinohio]

10:55 AM on 03/13/2010

Seems silly to point this out, but median and mean aren't the same thing. I've seen several comments about wealthy women bringing the median up or deep in debt women pulling the median down. The mean (average) can be affected by outliers, but the median is just the person in the middle, the point where 50% are higher and 50% are lower. So if you asked 101 single women, then the median is just whatever the 51st ranked person has.

[blogisti]

09:19 PM on 03/12/2010

So much for being "created equal" and "the American Dream" and "America is the greatest country in the World". All these myths only serve to keep people in their place convinced that it is their own fault that they aren't successful. Many of these woman work harder than the vast majority above them on the social ladder.
This is why socialism was invented and why ultimately it will prevail. People need one another and are responsible for one another. The founding fathers knew that. That is why the preamble to the Constitution speaks of taking care of public welfare, justice and tranquility. Those three goals are being ignored, conveniently by those that are lucky enough to have their own needs taken care of. It's this social Darwinism, and the "I'm all right, Jack" attitude that allows majority to ignore these Constitutional goals, for now. It is the predominance of Conservative philosophy bankrolled by Corporate America which keeps everyone believing in this status quo, even though everyone secretly knows it isn't working.

[hpnoodle]

04:41 PM on 03/12/2010

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

You have to be taught responsible financing and investment techniques that build wealth.

[urnumbersix]

10:13 PM on 03/12/2010

That "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" guy has been exposed as a fraud.
I hope you are not buying his products (giving money to him = how He is rich, not you).

[ebanks84]

10:10 AM on 03/12/2010

The main difference I see here is the fact that most black women were NOT taught the financial ropes until they got out on their own, either in college or with their first job. That's because their "baby boomer" parents were not as educated as white parents were. Most women of the 30s and 40s did NOT have the opportunities of women today to go to college and learn how to invest and handle their finances in a way to benefit them in the future. So the children of the baby boomers didn't learn either because their parents didn't know.

I know when I graduated high school, my parents thought that was an accomplishment in itself because they never had the opportunity to do so. Therefore, I wasn't encouraged to go to college like a white family could have encouraged their children to do. I didn't go until I was well in my forties after being married twice with four kids. So by the time I learned how to enhance my life financially, I was well in debt by then.

So it depends on how you were raised. And education played a lot in how black families raised their children because it depended on how much education the families had primarily. So what do you expect from those who knew no better? If they knew better, they would have done better. Blacks were just not encouraged to learn more than the white man wanted them to know. And that's it!

[msshani]

07:22 PM on 03/12/2010

I agree. My grandmother or mother did not know anything about credit and did not teach us about the consequences of getting behind in bills and stuff like that. yeah, some things are common sense but as far as establishing credit and your credit score, I was in my 20's by the time I even heard about that. That's why i'm educating my daughter now (she's 10) about finance and credit.

[ebanks84]

07:39 PM on 03/12/2010

There you go! When we know better, we do better and that's all there is to it. Fanned.

[Danalexa Jimenez]

01:10 AM on 05/03/2010

You make a very valid point. We overlook family history so we have a limited understanding of the problem. What the study did not shine a light on is the number of Black families that are handling their finances well & how they came to develop sound money management practices. In the 1970s, I know of several upper middle class families that formed investment clubs & invested in the stock market as a group. Many of them had stockbrokers-who were mostly white or Jewish-who reached out to them & help them increase their wealth. These folks are now in their 80's & 90's. In Dallas, TX there are many Af-Am families who were broughty into the stock market by White brokers. But the key factor here was that these were upper middle class families with at least one professional.
EXPOSURE MATTERS and getting a good financial /consumer education that teaches you the difference between having money & being wealthy. Lack of knowledge, resulting from a family history of marginal poverty, is what continues to make Af-Am's financial profile dismal. With respect to other ethnic/racial groups, women in other ethnic/racial groups where there are low levels of educational attainment (including Whites) are not far behind Af-Am women in terms of net worth.

We also need to look at how ALL Americans have been drawn into getting into debt and being superconsumers by relying on debt.

[Arcanum]

09:47 AM on 03/12/2010

As a single black man (homeowner, career, educated), I see the line that divides me from not only other black men, but black women are children.

I decided early on that I was not going to get caught up in the kid trap. I was the first person in my fam to buy a home or go to college...Why hadn't it been done before? Because people in my family started having babies way too soon.

I am very comfortable in my life now, and have no desire for children (or to be caught up in a marriage that wil more than likely fail). I can look forward to retirement now, because I have the whole world out there to see.

This article just scrapes at the surface of how this affects our entire community. We don't transfer wealth to our children, we empower the cycle of poverty and almost embrace a poverty mentality. I wish I could say that there is a one shot fix to this problem, but there isn't. It touches mental health care (self esteem), breakdown of the family, lack of strong financial role-models, our reluctance to discuss these things honestly...Our community is also preyed upon by shady credit schemers (poor people pay higher prices for everything - auto insurance; food; health care; loans)...It is almost impossible to break free.

The two that kept me focused on breaking the cycle was not having children and getting as much education as I could.

[ebanks84]

09:54 AM on 03/12/2010

You should be very proud of yourself but this article is about single women, not single men :).

[Hank10303]

10:43 AM on 03/12/2010

But single men meet single women and we observe them more than you think

[Hank10303]

10:08 AM on 03/12/2010

I can agreed whole heatedly with you on those points. I too find myself on the grassy side of the fence and even among those friends I have that aren't doing so well it saddens me because of the impact of the lack of basic financial knowledge. The peer pressure in many cultures to have children to continue the family line is strong; and among people of color even stronger. But, what I find missing in many families is the push by elders and parents to do better than the previous generation. A push I got that made me over compensate during my foundation building years. Also, part of the problem is the constant lure of commercial products that people can afford but don't need; as well as the credit traps of the 90's. As a result many people think its chic to "keep up with the Jones" and go broke or remain broke as a result.

[ebanks84]

09:43 AM on 03/12/2010

Black women are the back bone of the black race. And the reason why they have no money or no assets is because they have been held back from achieving anything of value. They work for less thereby having nothing left over to save. They have been lured into the "credit" pit of no return which keeps them paying until they can't pay any longer. All the "money pit" businesses are in their neighborhoods like those Pay Day loan companies, rent-to-own centers, cheap furniture warehouses, used car dealers, processed food markets, a fast food joint on every corner, drug dealers in every neighborhood, gangs and k!llings of their children and everything else that keeps them down and dirty. How the he.ll can they get any assets when the system is designed to keep them in debt especially since they didn't design the system in the first place?

No matter what you say, the black woman is the mainstay of all black families and in most cases, they have nothing to show for it but another angry black man holding them back. Even with both parents, it's hard today because black families are so heavily in debt and so set in their ways of doing things the old way. It's not easy for these families to change their ways of eating healthier, exercising regularly, and trying to save a penny whenever they can.

[rkimball]

08:24 AM on 03/12/2010

this hasn't a thing to do with skin colour, sex or age group. this has everything to do with lifestyle, responsibility & spending habbits.

people need to take personal responsibility for their very own actions.

[ebanks84]

09:00 AM on 03/12/2010

Ya think! I guess it has nothing to do with the fact that there has always been powerful hands holding them down, huh!

[rkimball]

08:07 AM on 03/15/2010

i was in the same position paying out over $600 a month on maxed out credit cards. i wised up & payed them all down. i am now debt free. ya, it hurt to go without for two years but i'm reaping the rewards today. anyone can do the same regardless of skin colour.

[PATina]

09:24 AM on 03/12/2010

First of all... this study doesn't assign blame... just gives the facts and suggests some reasons why the facts are what they are.

Second... since they are comparing wealth among race AND gender AND age groups... race IS a factor in this particular study.

[NORBIT]

07:35 AM on 03/12/2010

One Word: FAMILY!

Without RESPONSIBLE CHILDBEARING & PLANNING!!!! and the support that comes from FAMILY, those numbers will never change!


IT'S TIME TO LICENSE CHILDBEARERS as a mandate to social order and the human condition!

[vippy]

08:08 AM on 03/12/2010

Thank you! It is high noon for that action to be taken. It would solve a heap of problems.

[Hank10303]

10:33 AM on 03/12/2010

Agreed, many things can only be taught and received by children from their parents. Money smarts is one of those things.

[PATina]

06:41 AM on 03/12/2010

Going through these comments... I'm disturbed by the number of people who don't understand the concept of wealth. It's not how much money you make... it's not how much money you have laying around or in your purse. It is your assets minus liabilities. In other words... this article is simply stating that if you take the assets owned by minority women and subtract their debts or liability you have the same number of women who have wealth in excess of $5 as there are who have wealth that is less than $5.

Minorities on a whole are less likely to own a home (usually a persons largest asset from which most get their wealth)... and single people are less likely to own a home. So why is it so surprising to people that single women of color have so little wealth???

[vippy]

08:10 AM on 03/12/2010

I know a whole lot of white women in the same situation. Why even bring up the race here when it applies to a large number of people.

[ebanks84]

09:02 AM on 03/12/2010

Because the article is based on race.

[PATina]

09:21 AM on 03/12/2010

It's a comparable study... meaning it compares two or more things to find similarities/discrepancies. These types of studies can be very useful... for example comparing the cholesterol levels of skinny people and fat people. To use your question for this example... it would be meaningless to bring up girth since both fat and skinny people can have high cholesterol. But I'm sure you can see how beneficial it can be to compare the two groups.

[Hank10303]

10:39 AM on 03/12/2010

I like your point but one thing is missing. In the assets column the things that women purchase - do they buy them because they need them or want them? Are those purchases educated ones or ones of desire? In having a conversation with my sister once about credit she told me many times she had saw a sale and charged the item on sale. I asked her did you pay off the full balance the next month. She said no she didn't. I said to her then you wasted the money because the interest charged on the credit card wiped out the discount of the item you got on sale. She still didn't want to understand so I said - if something is on sale at a 10% discount and your credit card charges 17% you end up paying 7% more for that item by the time you pay of the credit card balance. So its also a matter of how are the assets being spent.

[PATina]

12:57 PM on 03/12/2010

Thanks Hank. What your sister basically did was add more to her liabilities than she did to her assets (because the item she bought on sale was probably not worth what she paid for it). And you are right... what we spend our money on can make a difference. Buying a house will do more to increase net worth (even w/ a mortgage) than buying a car (especially w/ a car loan)... even though the liability (loan) is usually longer and costs more. Property typically appreciates in value (although not necessarily in this particular housing market) and cars depreciate in value.

[goodn10tions]

04:53 AM on 03/12/2010

Hey, I can add two zeros behind that five....:o) I know this is a serious subject, but I have to say, why weren't the women I know included in this study? Most of them make six figures or more, and I'm not just talking about 10 Black or Hispanic women. Hmmm. Actually, I'm beginning to wonder why I, or the folks I know never are included in polls or studies, we vote too....

[jefke]

06:40 AM on 03/12/2010

The median gets lowered by the number of people with negative wealth. When you have 45% of people with zero or negative income then even with Oprah and others on the other end, the median will be low. It would interesting to see what the average is as opposed to the median.

[PATina]

06:51 AM on 03/12/2010

Agreed.

[tucsoncindy]

02:41 AM on 03/12/2010

I really don't like polls like this, but it is something to pay attention to..
I'm white/mix married..most made was $40,000 one year...my co-workers
of either Mexican race or women of GD education made less than me
20yrs in the financial industry..most of these women where far superior
in intelligence than our Manager or CEO...