The Economics Behind Female Issues of Trafficking, Immigration, and Success
By Ji Young Min, co-host of Inside the Ladies Locker Room
I am reading a wonderful, eye-opening book called, “Rich Woman,” by Kim Kiyosaki, the wife of Richard Kiyosaki, author of “Rich Dad.” What strikes me as I read this book is the common thread Kiyosaki says women all over the world share with each other. In her foreword, she states, “Since launching “Rich Woman” last year and traveling to many different countries, it has become clear that the Rich Woman message has been embraced by women from South Africa to Australia to India, Poland, Peru, New Zealand, Mexico, Israel, Sweden, Japan, Canada, Korea and across the US. There is a strong common bond that unites women worldwide. The Rich Woman message was designed to be a wake-up call for women….and a call to action-not only for the need for financial education, but to the value of a community of women across the globe who support and encourage one another to realize their financial goals and dreams.”
Kiyosaki’s goals remind me of what we collectively and individually are trying to achieve through the creation of the show “Inside the Ladies Lockerroom.” The creator and host, Irina Skaya, did not wait for a knock on her door to create a show which addressed global concerns and needs. She shoots, edits and conceives of the pieces. For those who do not understand the underpinnings of what goes into a TV show, I can assure you there are many factors, including a shoestring budget. Seeing this determination inspired me to take action to create action for common good as well. During the course of the show, I created and conceived my own non-profit for animals as I continue to donate to various animal shelters in my area and continue to educate those around me about volunteering for the same cause. In recent weeks, one of the hosts Lucia Nazarro also announced on her Facebook that she has received recognition for her song and has written a book on eating disorders.
Like author Kiyosaki mentioned, it is this network of good and action which tends to incur positive energy more.
Why is this important? Kiyosaki notes several statistics in the book which made me take serious note of a trend: ”47% of women over the age of 50 are single, 50% of marriages end in divorce. In the first year after divorce, a woman’s standard of living drops an average of 73%; of the elderly living in poverty, 3 out of 4 are women, yet 80% of these women were not poor when their husbands were alive, and 90% of all women will be solely responsible for their financial well-being within their lifetime.”
The topics affecting women on our previous shows, such as immigration, trafficking, and sexual harassment all have an undercurrent of economics to them. If there were no money to be made off of trafficking or by paying off government officials in foreign countries, if more companies were managed by women, if more women started their own businesses instead of relying on a no longer bullet proof economy, if we had savings left for our daughters, then we would make different choices and probably take different paths.
My reading of the book coincides also with helping a woman’s shelter in my neighborhood, a Volunteers of America affiliate. I remember times when my mother, a cancer patient, relied on the generosity of the American Cancer Society for help with transportation and with seminars on nutrition. I never forgot the help of my co-workers at the time who banded together to help pull me through an emotionally difficult time as well as an economically taxing period of my life. If we had not received that support, it would have been a much more different picture and I would have made more different choices with respect to my goals professionally. I may never have pursued a journalism route had we not gotten the help of our networks.
So when we talk about the various issues which are occuring in our communities, I note the trend of the lack of economic viability in many of these instances where women are either forced to sell their bodies as goods, or they are exploited by their male counterparts in the work force. So I just ask that we just lend a helping hand to someone in need, especially a woman in need. And picking up the book Rich Woman by Kim Kiyosaki would definitely help open one’s eyes as to the how’s of becoming empowered. We shouldn’t wait for an answer but create our own destinies. If reading the book is a start, it would be one in the right direction.
