Eye on the Prize: Building the Next Generation of Savvy Investors, One Girl at a Time

There is a clear need to educate women in the realm of financial literacy. A recent white paper commissioned by the ING Retirement Research Institute found that women on average are significantly less prepared for retirement than men. "[A]t all ages, women have saved significantly less than men," according to the report. "Younger women have saved just two thirds of men at the same age, and women age 65-69, in those critical pre-retirement years, have still saved just 78% of men the same age."[1]

And since the knowledge gleaned early on is the most vital, the target for such education is girls. As UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education Nicholas Burnett wrote in the preface to a 2008 UNESCO report on the connection between early education and sustainability, "[E]arly childhood education [is] the first stage of education where the foundation for lifelong learning and development is laid—and its contribution to building a sustainable society."[2]

NATIONAL CHALLENGE SUPPORTS GIRLS' FINANCIAL LITERACY

In 2009, the ING foundation and Girls Inc, a nonprofit girls advocacy group, joined forces to help tackle this problem and launched the ING-Girls Inc. Investment Challenge, an innovative program that not only gives girls between the ages of 12 and 18 hands-on experience in long-term investing, but also allows them to keep their profits in the form of college scholarships, putting them on the path to post-secondary education.

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Reynard is a Justmeans staff writer for Sustainable Finance and Corporate Social Responsibility. A former media executive with 15 years experience in the private and non-profit sectors, Reynard is the co-founder of MomenTech, a New York-based experimental production studio that explores transnational progressivism, neo-nomadism, post-humanism and futurism. He is also author of the blog 13.7 Billion Years, covering cosmology, biodiversity, animal welfare, conservation and ethical consumption. He is currently developing the Underground Desert Living Unit (UDLU), a sustainable single-family dwelling envisioned as a potential adaptation response to the future loss of human habitat due to the effects of anthropogenic climate change. Reynard is also a contributing author of "Biomes and Ecosystems," a comprehensive reference encyclopedia of the Earth's key biological and geographic classifications, to be published by Salem Press in 2013.