How four women built careers based on financial lessons they learned at home smithsonian voices

In the oral history, advocates and executives reflect on how their mothers shaped their understanding of financial independence through quiet examples and everyday interactions.

Bo Thao-Urabe says of her mother Mai, “She was always making money and keeping some of it for herself because she wanted independence.” This quiet act of financial independence was a lesson taught to Thao-Urabe that influenced his decision making as an adult. This is the type of financial learning that often occurs at home by observing caregivers’ decisions about what to spend and how to save.

We Declare: Women’s Voices on Freedom It is a collection of oral histories from women of different generations that reflect how their relationship with financial power and independence has changed over the past fifty years. in the stories of bo thao-urabe, Jackie Zehner, ai-jen pooAnd Dwana Franklin-DavisIt’s clear that behind their independence, there is a mother figure who made them what they looked like — often quietly and in ways that defied expectations.

Mothers Who Modeled Financial Independence

bo thao-urabeHis family were refugees when he arrived in the United States in 1979. Despite the uncertainty of living in a new country, Thao-Urabe’s mother, Mai, opened her own bank account separate from her husband. Reflecting on Mai’s actions, Thao-Urabe recalls, “She always earned money and kept some of it for herself because she wanted freedom.”

That desire for independence allowed Mae to make her own financial decisions, including helping her daughters buy their first car. Once Thao-Urabe experienced freedom for herself, she realized she had a desire to empower others. As an advocate and leader for the Hmong community, Thao-Urabe’s work has increased freedom for her community members by helping to uncover how support systems work so they can gain more control over their lives. But Thao-Urabe’s attainment would not have been possible without his mother. “She was my first teacher about self-determination and what it means to truly live under your own leadership,” recalls Thao-Urabe.

Jackie Zehner Growing up in a small town, she dreamed of financial power so much so that in her yearbook quote she declared a goal of earning one million dollars. Having started her career in finance, Zehner has worked to increase the amount of investment capital available to women and educate women about how they can claim their financial agency. She identifies the root of this passion in the example of her mother, Rose, on whom she was modeled. “My mom worked,” Zehner remembers. “He had his own money too.”

For Zehner, daily work outside the home provided vital financial support for the family. Her father was an entrepreneur who owned his own grocery store, but Rose’s then-unusual choice to become a working mother was the only thing that allowed Zehner’s father the capital needed to continue his business. “It became so normal in her family that a woman could be a mother and be a caregiver and do all the housework,” Zehner recalls. “But (he) had a job. And I always wanted that for myself.”

money was always part of the conversation

Bo Thao-Urabe and Jackie Zehner saw financial freedom before anyone even called it a thing. Other women interviewed we declare Describe moms who not only modeled financial independence, they named it, explained it, and made sure their daughters understood it.

“Early on my mother instilled in us the need to take control of money and be conscious about how you are saving it, what you are using it for,” ai-jen poo Let’s remember. His mother Wen-Jen, who immigrated to the United States in pursuit of education, always took a long view of finances. Poo, now a housework and care advocate, recalls Wen-zhen teaching her children to “don’t just think about what you want in the moment, but also think about what you want long-term.”

Poo grew up “never seeing her mother sitting down.” In his childhood memories, his mother was “always roaming around, cooking, studying, working, cleaning and taking us to this place or that place.” Feeling that Wen-Jen’s work was taken for granted, Poo’s subsequent work helped inspire caregivers to gain rights and justice by helping pass the first state domestic workers’ bill of rights in New York.

Dwana Franklin-DavisNow the CEO of Reboot Representation, a nonprofit working to increase the number of Black, Latina and Native American women graduating with computing degrees, she also comes from a family focused on long-term financial decisions. Franklin-Davis’ mother, Donna, always asked her the question, “How are we spending our money? Does it make sense?” Donna’s biggest lesson was about name brands and thrift. Donna taught Franklin-Davis that it was better to make things at home than to buy them. This ethos extended beyond material goods, with Franklin-Davis remembering that her mother did not like eating at restaurants. As she recalls, Donna always said that she cooked better than the restaurants. Donna wanted her family to know that “we won’t spend money at restaurants when we have food at home.”

The lesson of carefully deciding how and when to spend money later became a resource for Franklin-Davis. During her first job after college, she rented a less expensive apartment so she could save up to buy a condo in her second year on the job.

women interviewed we declare Grew up in a period of transition. During the 1970s and 80s, women were entering the workforce in larger numbers, pursuing careers rather than simply taking jobs, and increasingly staying in or returning to work after having children. Today, keeping a separate bank account or pursuing a career are common choices for women, but at the time, these were difficult acts of independence. The mothers in these stories deliberately made these choices, and in doing so, they gave their daughters something that could not be taken away: knowledge, habits, and expectations that made their own independence possible. Learn more about the determination of women to increase economic power and independence for themselves and others across the United States We Declare: Women’s Voices on Freedom.

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