March 2024
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Early in the last century,1909 to be exact, the very first National Women’s Day was organized by the Socialist Party of America to protest the horrible working conditions for women in the garment industry. This was a time when American women were still fighting for the right to vote, and that protest was a small sign of big things to come.
The following year, Clara Zetkin proposed a celebration every year in every country as part of the continuing drive for women’s rights. Russian women agreed by organizing their first women’s day in 1911. It took the United Nations a few decades to hop on board with their first celebration in 1975. Now in 2024, it is a truly international celebration of the progress women have made, balanced with the recognition of how much farther the human race has to go in treating women across our planet with fairness and dignity.
It gives me great hope to see that the general attitude of upcoming generations reflects enormous progress in viewing men and women as equals. However, certain occupations that are still male dominated have a long way to go as evidenced by ongoing discrimination against women in law enforcement, firefighting, the military and polo … ha … just checking to see if you were paying attention. Fun fact: Sue Sally Hale disguised herself as a man for the first 20 years she played polo starting in the 1950s. The United States Polo Association finally admitted her in 1972 and today, women represent 40% of the membership of the US Polo Association. That’s what I call progress.
My own women’s’ rights journey began in Iowa. As the oldest child on a family run farm during the late1950s and early 1960s, I was expected to pull my weight doing chores daily taking care of our livestock. During the busy spring planting and fall harvest seasons, I was pulled out of school as needed to get the crops in or out. No quarter was given or requested just because I was a girl (and a skinny one at that!). The job had to get done. Need to move that 60 pound bay of hale from the barn loft to the stanchions for the milk cows? Don’t ask for help … just figure it out. Drag it, roll it, break it down, levitate it (that didn’t work by the way). Whatever the cost, the job had to be done.
There were some jobs on the farm that required more physical strength than I or my mother had so those were handled by my dad. But I drove tractors, trucks and generally pulled my weight regardless of my gender. Reflecting back now, I realize that this rooted me deeply in the belief that gender shouldn’t matter when deciding who could or should do a job. The question is not which gender should do the job, but who has the ability and time to get the job done. I couldn’t change things, but I could adapt and deal with it.
Once I left the farm and ventured off as the first person on either side of my family to attend college, I began to notice that leadership positions were mostly filled by men with women in the background as quiet support. As a music major, I saw that the orchestra conductors were all men. Most of the professors were men. Many of the first chair positions in the bands and orchestras were men. Even the section leaders in the marching band were mostly men. I began to realize that gender did matter, but not in a good way. Talent mattered but if that looked equal, it seemed that the guys always won. Once again, I felt I couldn’t change things, so I put my head down and made the best of the situation.
Gender discrimination became very real to me once I started working in the life insurance business in the 70s.
I was hired as a secretary but in addition to dictation and typing, my responsibilities also included insurance proposals, estate analysis, contract analysis and whatever else was needed to sell lots and lots of insurance. The salespeople were all men, and the support staff members were all women. It was funny how the support staff was also young, good looking and worked long, hard hours with no overtime pay. During the decade or so that I worked for this company, I never met nor was introduced to a client- despite having created a financial planning service I did the work, and the guys took the credit and cashed the fat commission checks. Rarely was a plan praised and frequently, it was criticized if the recommendation for life insurance was too low.
The atmosphere in the office was more tense than cooperative. A few of the owners were verbally abusive using horrendous language. There were also frequent temper tantrums complete with one of the bosses throwing whatever object was handy. The atmosphere also had an element of predator and prey. It was not uncommon to hear one of the guys bragging about who they “bagged”.
However, despite the atmosphere, there were growing and learning opportunities which I utilized to the very best of my abilities. I was allowed to pursue professional designations such as the Chartered Life Underwriter, and was given more and more responsibility with modest pay increases along the way. But I grew increasingly frustrated that my contributions were rarely recognized either in my paycheck or any other way. I spent years accepting what I thought was unchangeable when one day, I realized I could make a different choice and utilize my financial planning skills in a healthier, more equitable environment. With the support of my husband and one key business supporter, I took the plunge.
The rest, as they say, is history. What a relief it was to be able to create plans with the sole goal of helping clients plan for a more secure financial future. There was no one telling me I had to change a plan because it didn’t recommend enough life insurance. Although gender discrimination was still an issue when meeting with prospects because some men weren’t used to taking life or investment advice from a woman, I learned that I could choose. I didn’t have to put my head down and adapt. I could just say “no” to working with anyone who did not respect my skills and my experience. The newfound freedom of working without constantly being on guard against predators made coming to work a joy.
After slowly building my financial planning practice to the point where I was making a respectable income, an opportunity arose that created a new conundrum for me. Should I continue down the path where I had complete control of every aspect of my business, or should I merge my practice into a larger firm where I had influence but not absolute control? It was a decision that I pondered for many months before agreeing to work as a part-time consultant so I could see for myself how deeply the integrity that was talked about went into the culture of the company. I soon saw that while it wasn’t perfect, there was hope for change.
I wanted to create a culture of inclusiveness where talent was recognized regardless of age or gender. My new partner had the right mindset: always do whatever is right for the client, regardless of the cost. We just had to apply that philosophy to our own internal team members. Over time, we were able to move toward more equitable pay based on ability and job performance rather than gender factors. Whenever a new hire showed any inclination to take advantage of others on our team, they were quickly corrected and learned to respect all co-workers. When I look at where that company has evolved today, I see a leadership team that is two-thirds women. I see compensation based solely on performance. I see opportunities for advancement in all fields laid out equally for every team member. In short, things have changed and continue to evolve in ways that empower every team member to achieve excellence. I know that Morton Wealth is somewhat unique, but it gives me hope that the atmosphere and values that we’ve worked so hard to create here will become the norm rather than the exception.
The women on our team sometimes express admiration for what I’ve accomplished, but I still think of myself as that skinny little Iowa farm girl moving 60 pound bales of hay, one step at a time.
