Summit held on campus focuses on empowering women

Photos courtesy of Jenie Connors

In the next 10 years, two thirds of consumer wealth will be transferred to women, causing more women to have a desire to become better educated in financial literacy. A group of women were able to be further educated at the Utah Women’s Economic Forum, held on campus on Aug. 17.

The Utah Women’s Economic Forum was hosted by Dr. Susan R. Madsen, director of the Utah Women and Leadership Project at UVU. The Utah Women’s Economic Forum is based on empowering women financially.

The forum involved breaking up into groups to attend classes covering a wide range of topics, such as investing, entrepreneurship, retirement and taxes.

“When women are educated, when women use their voices, when women are empowered, including financial empowerment, things are better,” Madsen said.

Madsen sees the event as an important opportunity for women to become empowered.

She also stated that if women are constantly in financial struggles, worrying about how they are going to feed their children, or concerned for their own safety, overtime they lose their confidence and voice.

Jenie Connors, a certified financial planner at Diversify Investments, was the sponsor and keynote speaker of the event.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for a few years. I’m just really passionate about reaching out to women and helping them,” said Connors. “It’s so important that women know how money works for them. I mean, we control 85 percent of consumer purchases, so it’s good to know how money actually works, not just the fact that we can spend it.”

At the forum, Connors taught a class on retirement and how to prepare one’s money for it. In the classes, there were multiple already-successful businesswomen that were learning how to be smarter with their money.

Connors hopes all of the classes helped women learn how to be financially prepared and make wise decisions with their money.

“It’s so important to teach women that they know how to make money work for them, because if they don’t, they’re just going to be led by fear, not by knowledge,” said Connors. “You should be knowledgeable and empowered to make good financial decisions.”