The Women’s Foundation of Arkansas presented its 18th Annual Power of the Purse on September 23. The foundation’s three honorees were Colette D. Honorable, Elise Mitchell and Angela Moody. Carol Coletta, the keynote speaker, has provided a copy of her remarks, which we publish here. The camera purse (above) is among those for sale at the Esse Purse Museum and Store at 1510 Main Street in Little Rock.
Earlier this month, the women who occupied senior positions in the early years of President Obama’s administration told the story of what they had to do to make their voices heard above all the testosterone at the White House. They called their strategy “amplification.” When a woman made a good point, another woman would repeat it, and give credit to the originator. They would continue to repeat the point and give credit until the message was heard. That made the idea harder for the men to ignore.
By coming together here today, you are borrowing their strategy. You are amplifying the message that Arkansas is stronger when women are stronger. “Stronger Women. Stronger Arkansas.”
You come here as leaders in business, philanthropy and public service, and join together under the banner of the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas to amplify the impact of your contributions. (I like to think of those contributions as investments.)
And as women investors in your state’s well-being, you have a particular focus on the 80 percent of Arkansas women without a college education and on teen pregnancy.
I can’t think of a more worthy or timely focus.
We have begun treating education in this country as if it were a private good. It’s the only way to explain the challenges to education budgets we are seeing in state legislatures and in county commissions across the country. No talk of investment. All talk of budget cuts.
Yes, it’s certainly true that the person who gets a degree benefits personally. She is more likely to be employed and to make more money with that degree.
But we need to understand that education is also a public good. The percentage of college degree holders in a community explains 60 percent of the variation in per capita incomes among U.S. metro areas. It overwhelms everything else. No other single factor comes even close. And per capita income, in turn, explains a community’s level of prosperity.
Communities and states with poorly educated populations will find it difficult to raise living standards in a world where productivity and pay depend increasingly on knowledge.
And international research shows that educating women comes with a bonus: Not only is it the big multiplier to improving the economy, but educating women also improves health and even the environment.
You might think that increasing the number of women with college degrees starts with increasing college access. That’s important. But you might be surprised by the number of people with some college but no completion. These are people who got into college, they paid for college, they earned college credits. They just didn’t finish.
Consider these numbers: for Arkansans 25 and older, there are 451,000 people with some college but no degree. Here in Little Rock, there are 115,000. In both cases, that’s roughly 23 percent of all adults – almost a quarter.
Just a one percentage point increase in college attainment in Little Rock – just Little Rock – would mean an additional $600 million in your local economy – annually.
Unfortunately, without the degree, without the completion… those credits mean little in the job market. But the good news is that a lot of people already have a head start toward a degree and today, there are so many ways to acquire credits.
Imagine if you could add 450,000 people to the number of degree holders in the state. What a boost to the economy and to the well-being of Arkansas families that would be.
One big impediment to acquiring a degree, though, is having a child.
Parenthood is the leading reason that teen girls drop out of school. More than 50 percent of teen mothers never graduate from high school. Less than 2 percent of teen moms earn a college degree by age 30.
And compounding the challenge, about 25 percent of teen moms have a second child within 24 months of their first baby.
You probably know all of this – at least generally. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here and you wouldn’t be supporting the Women’s Foundation.
But I’ve lived this.
See, I was that pregnant teenager. I started my freshman year of college with a three-week old. I raced through college as fast as I could, taking 21 hours a semester, 15 hours in the summers. But unfortunately, I ran out of money before I completed a degree. I almost got there.
I was a senior. I completed a major. But I didn’t get the degree.
I tried working, raising my daughter, and going to school all at the same time, but I couldn’t manage it, even with help from my mom. And when the choice was eating versus going to school, I chose eating.
Even though I dropped out of college, I was fortunate enough to get a good job – even without a degree – because that was a long time ago. The degree was not yet the absolute price of admission.
But the fact that I didn’t have a degree really weighed on me. After 10 years as a “stopped out” college senior, I went back to complete a second major and a first degree, thanks to the kind of college reimbursement plan that rarely exists in workplaces today.
I was lucky. I made it. But way too many women don’t. That’s why your collective effort through the Women’s Foundation is so crucial. We want women to have all options available to them to make good lives for themselves and their families.
There are many reasons to feel hopeful on the issues you are tackling: Teen birth rates since 2013 are down 16 percent. Since 1991, they are down 64 percent. That is very good news. But Arkansas still has the highest rate of teen pregnancy among all 50 states. So there is a lot of work to do here.
Similarly, college completion has increased in Arkansas. In 2002, the four-year completion rate was 15 percent. By 2013, it was almost 21 percent. The six-year completion rate is also up. But, again, Arkansas ranks near the bottom among states, just ahead of Alaska and the District of Columbia.
When I think about my life story and the stories of so many other young women who find themselves in similar circumstances, I am so grateful to you for your generosity and your determination to make a difference on these critical issues. A famous Arkansan once said, “It takes a village.” Indeed, you are that village.
As women, we know that the support we provide to other women is precious – precious because it can be scarce. Even though we are sitting in a room full of achievers, we know that achievement for women is still a struggle.
No matter how many mistakes someone makes, there is always a chance to change direction. Never, never, never, never give up on people.
Julian Bond, former chairman of the NAACP, once explained his success to a Memphis audience, and I think it especially resonates for women.
He said, “Nobody passed the torch to me. I had to peel their fingers away from the torch, one by one. This is not a relay race. You’ve got to earn this torch by exhibiting some leadership of your own.”
With your support of the Women’s Foundation, you are earning the torch. Thank you for all that you’ve done and will do for the women of Arkansas.