Giving Compass' Take:

• Research from the Asset Funders Network highlights the intersectionality of the wealth gap impacting millennial women. 

• How can funders effectively work to close the wealth gap for millennial women, particularly women of color? 

• Learn how funders can impact wealth inequality. 

Millennial women today (born between 1980 and 1997), number about 40 million. Representing 31.5% of the female population in the U.S., millennial women do not benefit from many economic policies and systems designed by, and built to meet the needs of, men as primary breadwinners. Today, many policies affecting family economic security fail to account for the remarkable increase in millennial women being the primary or co-breadwinner for their families. Existing policies and systems often do not support millennial women’s rise in educational attainment and resulting student debt burden, nor do they acknowledge the ongoing roles millennial women play as the primary caregivers for children and other family members. Too many millennial women are operating under clipped wings that prevent them from achieving economic security and soaring to their full potential.

Millennial women came of age during the Great Recession, the rise of mass incarceration, unprecedented student debt levels, and changing workforce dynamics. All of these factors contribute to the fact that millennial women are 37% more likely than Generation Xers (those born between 1965 to 1984) to be living below the federal poverty line and are more likely to be underemployed or unemployed than previous generations. Additionally, immigrant millennial women, particularly Latinx women, are often key financial contributors to their parents and extended families, which directly impacts their economic stability.

Millennial women are part of the most diverse generation the U.S. has ever seen. Close to 44% are women of color,4 making it increasingly important to address consistent racial and ethnic wealth inequities in this generation. Throughout history, policymakers and government officials have boosted White communities while placing barriers to economic stability for communities of color. The result is that single White women in their 20s with a college degree have the median wealth of $3,400, while the median for Black women in their 20s is $11,000 in debt. For married women in their thirties, Black women have median debt of $20,500 while White women have $97,000 in median wealth.

We risk the financial security of future families, children, and communities if grantmakers, policy advocates, and practitioners fail to support and advocate for key policy changes, make strategic investments and develop programs grounded in the lived experiences and societal context of millennial women, particularly women of color, to ensure their economic stability. This generation of women is facing multiple wealth-stripping mechanisms that must be addressed and curtailed if we want to develop asset and wealth-building strategies that are truly effective.

Grounded in an intersectional lens—a lens that accounts for the impacts of the multiple parts of a person’s identity such as race, class, and gender—this report presents disaggregated original research to outline the current economic reality of millennial women. It explores the primary drivers of millennial women’s wealth inequities, offering promising strategies, best practices, and bold ideas for philanthropic investments to address these issues.