907: The Hidden Price of Being a Woman in Business (And Why You’re Not Imagining It)

Why The Double Tax Changes How Women Build Wealth

In a wide-ranging conversation on The Gold Digger Podcast, economist Anna Gifty explains the idea of the "double tax"—the compounded economic burden of sexism and racism—and maps how it shapes capital access, caregiving obligations, and everyday choices for women entrepreneurs. Drawing on decades of research and contemporary data, she connects the historical roots of the racial wealth gap to practical obstacles faced by founders today and lays out clear strategies for shifting power through policy, community, and transparency.

How Capital Decisions Reproduce Inequality

Anna breaks down who sits at the tables that decide funding and why those demographics warp what businesses get built. Venture capital remains disproportionately white and male, leaving whole markets underserved because founders who understand particular customer needs are excluded from decision-making. She uses hard numbers to show that representation among investors matters as much as product-market fit: if the people who fund startups aren’t reflective of the customers they could serve, money and innovation get left on the table.

Historical Wealth Gaps and Modern Consequences

Tracing wealth differences from the 1860s to the present, the conversation shows how historical policy and investment differences create unequal wells of wealth today. Those wells determine who can take risks, who can afford to iterate, and who can step away from paid work long enough to build a business. Anna frames the racial wealth gap as a structural head start for some and a lasting handicap for others—and explains how capital gains and intergenerational asset transfers have amplified that divide.

Caregiving, Paid Leave, and the Hidden Costs of Running a Household

Caregiving responsibilities—childcare, eldercare, and family health needs—carry real, measurable costs that reduce earning potential and slow entrepreneurial growth. Anna points to public policies, like paid family leave and the child tax credit, as tools that can protect income and time for caregivers, and she offers practical examples of how community-based systems of mutual support can function where public policy falls short.

Concrete Tools: Community, Transparency, and Policy

• Community capital: Pooling resources and collective funding can create initial runway when individual wells of wealth are shallow.
• Transparency: Sharing deal terms, fees, and funding outcomes lifts the benchmark for everyone and exposes bias in decision-making.
• Policy advocacy: Pushing for paid family leave, expanded child tax credits, and funding programs broadens access across class and race.

Surprising Perspectives That Reshape Strategy

Anna reframes common advice: the notion of being "self-made" obscures the networks and teams behind success, and focusing on the hardest-hit groups often yields solutions that benefit everyone. She also shares memorable analogies—like universal ramps that serve more than their intended users—to show how investments in equity create broad social returns.

The episode ends with practical, research-backed steps for entrepreneurs and allies: build collective wealth through community funds, demand transparency in funding and pricing, and push local and national leaders for family-friendly policies that protect time and income. These measures, combined with small acts of solidarity—checking in with neighbors, sharing opportunities, and donating to seed funds—create a scaffolding that helps more founders launch and scale. The conversation ties historical data to immediate action and offers a clear reminder that structural problems require collective solutions.