Ep #112: Money Is Feminist Work

Hey, coach. What if every financial decision you make is either a case for money feminism or it's reinforcing patriarchy? I'm Kendall and in this episode of The Money Coach School Podcast, I'm breaking down why money is feminist work and how every money choice you make is either an act of liberation and financial freedom or an act of continued conditioning. You'll see the exact places women are taught to defer, delay, or discount and how claiming your financial agency isn't just smart, it is self-determination in action.

This is about defining wealth as a tool for sovereignty, identity, and radical freedom of choice. It's all here for you inside this episode of The Money Coach School Podcast. Let's dive in.

Welcome to The Money Coach School Podcast. To really excel at coaching women, you have to be skilled, confident, and even fearless at money coaching. If you're passionate about women holding genuine money power and love supporting women entrepreneurs, then this is the show for you. Now, here's your host, money feminist Kendall SummerHawk.

Hello, beautiful coach. Let's dive right in. I want to start with an undeniable truth. Every financial decision you make is a feminist act. Yes, even the small ones. How you price, how you save, how you invest, how you ask to be paid—each of these decisions is either you standing in your power or you handing it off.

Because most women were never taught that being empowered with money isn't just a smart skill, it is a radical claiming of agency. It is sovereignty. It is our freedom, not just financially, which of course it is, but in our ability to be at choice. To be at choice in what you do, who you do it with, and when you do it. The freedom to start a business, oh yes. To invest in yourself, yes. To leave a relationship, hey, it happens. To pivot in your business, that happens too. To make new choices that your intuition says are a go, even when they make no sense to the outside world. Trust me, I've had a million of those.

And that's what we're diving into today. Money is feminist work. Now, this isn't a lecture or a list of rules. This is about getting your financial house in order, not just because it's responsible, but because it's revolutionary. Paying off your debt, feminist. Raising your rates, oh yes, feminist. Creating overflow so you never have to say yes out of survival again, yep, feminist. Because every time a woman steps into financial clarity, she steps out of patriarchal control.

So this is self-determination at the most fundamental level because money touches every thread in the canvas of your life. All right, so let's take a look at this. First, what is money feminism? Now, from a global perspective, money feminism is based on the truth that women's economic empowerment is the key to gender equality. There is abundant statistical evidence that the more money women have, the more the world, starting with their very own communities, improves and prospers and elevates.

I love the example of MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos's first wife, who has given away more than $19 billion—with a B—$19 billion to over 2,000 organizations just since 2019. She's known for providing large, no-strings-attached grants to a wide range of nonprofits and institutions. And compare that to her former husband, who's reportedly donated just $4 billion over his entire lifetime. So, $19 billion from the woman in just 6 years, $4 billion from the bro across his lifetime. Yeah, don't even get me started.

Maybe I'll do a money rant episode on what women do with money and how you do not need to be concerned about turning into a loser bro billionaire if you have money. That's not going to ever be you no matter how much money you have. But let's bring this back to the microcosm of you.

Right now, I define money feminism as the intersection of wealth and sovereignty, or to put it more plainly, the intersection of money and independence. The wealth is your capacity to accumulate money and to hold more, to allow yourself to be a woman who has money, even when that challenges every fiber of your lineage, even when it stretches the status quo of your marriage, your friendships, or your family dynamics. Your ability to throw open the door and allow yourself to have more is not to be taken lightly.

Now, the sovereignty part is your power to decide what matters to you without guilt, without proving, without permission, and certainly without approval. And let's be honest, that takes courage. It takes grit, and it takes determination.

So within money feminism are core, three core truths. And here's what they are, and then I want to share with you why, briefly, why they matter. So truth number 1: Money is not neutral for women. It is deeply personal because money has been used as a tool of control. And for centuries, women have been taught—really, not just centuries, I mean thousands of years, let's be honest—women have been taught to be dependent, to be grateful, and to be compliant regarding money.

Now, this isn't just history, it's probably also in your family line. It's definitely in your nervous system. And it shows up in client conversations. Money is emotional. Money is generational. Money is gendered. And make no mistake, the patriarchy, yeah, it profits from your silence around money. The less you ask, the less you question. The more you second-guess, the longer you wait. The easier it is for the status quo to keep women overextended and underpaid.

So we've been imprinted with messaging like, men are the providers, men are better with numbers, men should control the wealth. And whether it was your father, your boss, your accountant, or your partner, chances are you were taught to defer, to hand over the financial keys, to be grateful instead of asking for more, to wait for permission to raise your price or to hire help or build your wealth. So money feminism is the refusal to keep playing that role.

All right, truth number 2: Money is not separate from your identity as a woman. It is a mirror, and what it reflects is your beliefs, your boundaries, and your self-concept, and really your sense of self-worth. So let me show you what I mean with four identity-level money mirrors. The first one, your pricing, it reflects your self-permission. If you find yourself undercharging or discounting or explaining your rates, look underneath that. Do you trust yourself to claim your full value? Or are you waiting for someone—a client, a coach, a man—to tell you it's okay?

The next example, your savings reflect your sense of safety, not just in your bank account, but in your body. So let me ask you, were you raised to believe money was something you could step into and manage? Or were you raised to believe that hey, that's a man's job or someone else's job? Next example, your investments reflect your belief in your future. Women are taught to ask, "Can I afford this?" Men are taught to ask, "What will this return?" Money feminism invites you to invest based on where you want to be, not where you come from.

Last example, your daily money habits reflect your standards. Do you avoid looking at your numbers? Do you let someone else handle the finances? Or do you simply let them go unhandled all together? Yeah, that's not overwhelm, that is learned deferral. When you choose to face your numbers, you take the steering wheel of your life back. So yes, money is your identity in action. Not because your bank balance defines you, of course it doesn't, but because every financial choice is shaped by the woman you believe you're allowed to be. And when that belief shifts, your money follows.

So I want to touch on why traditional advice fails women. Most of the money advice women received, it wasn't built for their power or a sense of empowerment. We've all heard the mantras, "Track every penny"—which by the way, I do—"cut the lattes, be grateful for what you have." By the way, tracking every penny is an act of money feminism, believe me. And I'll talk about that in a different episode.

Anyway, so yes, awareness matters, of course. But most of these rules are built on scarcity, on control, and on fear. They were never designed to expand your capacity. They were designed to shrink your ambition and to keep you playing safe and to keep the financial status male-dominated, male-controlled, patriarchal.

So what they're not teaching you is how to intentionally create overflow, not just how to cut expenses, which is a smart thing to do, of course, but really how to hold more without guilt or money drama. They're not teaching you how to trust your desires as your financial north star and not dismiss them as greedy or impractical. Trust me, they're not. They are your financial north star.

They're not teaching you how to see money as a source of power, not something to fear, apologize for, or feel burdened by. And they're not teaching you how to build emotional safety with money, so that you're not just surviving, but you're feeling secure and definitely feeling sovereign.

Women are taught financial smallness. We're taught to focus on survival. We're taught to feel wrong for wanting more. But you don't need more limitations. Oh my god, no way. What you need is agency and the ability to make, keep, manage, and multiply your own money. That's money feminism.

So what money feminism actually looks like in real life for me and for the women I coach, just a few examples. Let's say a woman raises her price, not to prove something, but because her expertise is sacred. She builds overflow not for a crisis, but to make her future feel safe and abundant. She stops the hustle for more and learns how to hold more with calm and certainty. I call this money peace. She invests in mentorship not to be rescued, but to expand. She checks her accounts like she would check in on a sacred relationship with care and presence and attention.

Now, this isn't scrimping, this isn't survival mode. This is sovereignty. This is a woman who no longer asks, "What will they think if I earn more?" and instead asks, "What becomes possible when I lead with financial clarity?" Money feminism is about financial intention. It's about being the woman who is willing to build real wealth on her own terms.

So here's your wrap-up and the coaching questions that I want you to use to anchor this into action. Money is feminist work. You are not here to “earn,” your worth through money. Oh my god, no way. You are here to express your gifts through receiving money and build real wealth in the process. So this isn't about proving something, it's about creating something. And the more well-resourced you are, the more impactful you become, always without apology.

And because this is feminist work, that means it's also shame-free work. We don't do shame here. We don't do guilt here. We don't believe you're behind. We believe you're a woman waking up to her power and rewriting the rules as she goes.

So here are three powerful coaching questions that I want to give you to answer this week, to journal. So question number 1: What does financial power look like for me this year? Really think about that. What does it look like? Question two: Where am I still waiting for permission to be wealthy? That's a gotcha question that really has deep roots that are worth exploring. And what is one decision I can make this week that reflects my future self, not fear? I want you to let your answers guide you.

And if this episode stirred something in you, know that I teach this work inside my Secret Energy of Money Mastermind. Because pricing and saving and overflow are more than just strategies. They are identity work. They are feminist work. They are life work. So you can check out my mastermind at SecretEnergyofMoney.com. I will also link to it in the show notes. We are enrolling now and I would love to be your money coach because you're not here to play small with your pricing or your power or your profit. You are here for more. More money peace, more money power, more unapologetic wealth on your terms.

This is your money empowerment era and I am so here for it and so here for you. All right, thank you, my beautiful soul. Thank you for listening, and I will see you in next week's episode.

Thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode of The Money Coach School Podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you follow so you never miss an episode. Also, I would so love and appreciate if you would leave a 5-star review. Your review supports women just like you in discovering all of the juicy tips and insights I’m sharing here on how to coach women on money.

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