CCFWE and FinPowered Aim To End The Silent Reality Of Economic Abuse
Press Release
Increasing women’s financial literacy key to ending economic abuse
The Canadian Center for Women’s Empowerment (CCFWE) and FinPowered team up to provide a financial focus on women’s education and create awareness about financial abuse and other forms of economic injustice in abusive relationships. Economic abuse is a seldom-talked-about yet prevalent issue faced by survivors of domestic violence. It limits women’s choices and ability to access safety. Cases of domestic abuse in Canada have risen to 93 per cent, thus women have experienced their perpetrator withholding money they needed for food, clothes or other necessities. (Source: “Canadian Centre for Women’s Empowerment, ACCESS TO ECONOMIC RESOURCES DURING COVID-19 IN Ottawa, Gatineau and Hull, 2021”)
According to a national survey conducted by Statistics Canada, seventy per cent of Canadian women do not have the financial knowledge and skills to manage their money to ensure they are financially secure today and in the future. That is why Svetlana Mamaeva – Miss World Canada 2020, a Schulich School of Business alumni, and top 10 per cent in Canada award recipient in personal banking – created FinPowered, a free financial literacy program to help women in shelters become more financially independent.
FinPowered, which has completed 85 workshops, reaching over 800 women in Canada and her home country, Moldova, will be showcased at the 2021 Miss World competition in Puerto Rico this December. This global platform with more than one billion will shed light on economic abuse and create a stronger awareness internationally around the importance of educating women financially.
“Increasing financial literacy among women and curbing the devastating effects of economic abuse on victims is a challenge, yes, but it is a battle that can be won,” said Mamaeva.
“Women from marginalized groups are at a higher risk of economic abuse due to systemic factors. Culturally appropriate awareness and education on economic abuse is very essential to protect women,” Meseret Haileyesus, CEO of the Canadian Center for Women’s Empowerment.
What is Economic Abuse?
Economic abuse occurs when a domestic partner interferes with employment, controls access to finances, refuses to contribute to costs or generates financial costs without consent. Women from marginalized groups including newcomers, refugees, racialized and Indigenous women are at a higher risk of economic abuse due to other systemic factors.
Economic abuse can have a profoundly devastating effect on women: it impacts mental health and impedes a woman’s ability to leave an abuser, subsequently prolonging the amount of time she is vulnerable to harm. Those who experience economic abuse are five times more likely to experience physical abuse and other forms of gender-based violence including sexual and psychological abuse. Moreover, when women experience economic abuse in the context of coercive control, they are at increased risk of homicide (Surviving Economic Abuse 2019).
About Pageant Group Canada
Pageant Group Canada has been Canada’s top pageant producer since 2013. We are the official national representatives and advocates of the Beauty with a Purpose social initiative of the Miss World Organization who has been empowering women from across the world into making a social difference in their community for 70 years.
About Canadian Center for Women’s Empowerment (CCFWE)
CCFWE is the only Canadian not-for-profit organization dedicated to ending economic abuse through education, policy change, mentorship and economic empowerment. Based in Ottawa, CCFWE’s goal is to create national awareness about the impact of economic abuse by empowering survivors to improve their financial knowledge and educating policy-makers and financial institutions about how they can help. For more information visit ccfwe.org and follow @CCFWE on social media.
For more information:
Meseret Haileyesus
The Canadian Center for Women’s Empowerment (CCFWE)
Link to Relatable Content
We covered healing from sexual abuse here and sexual violence awareness month.
