“Neale is an exceptional woman. You name it she’s done it,” said Lalita Janke, current president of the United States National Committee for UN Women and founder and past president of the East Florida Chapter.
Neale Godfrey, a business executive, entrepreneur and prolific author of books on financial literacy for children and adults, was the keynote speaker at a fundraiser to benefit the USNC for UN Women last Wednesday evening at the Vero Beach Museum of Art. Members of the all-volunteer, nonprofit are dedicated to supporting the global initiatives of UN Women to educate, empower and assist women and girls who are the victims of violence and gender inequality.
With wit and the comedic timing of a professional stand-up comic, Godfrey, who has been featured as a question on Jeopardy and an answer in a New York Times crossword puzzle, spoke about Tap Dancing through the Boardroom, her journey as a businesswoman in male-dominated industries.
Godfrey experienced gender inequality first-hand in the early 1970s when she was hired – despite an epic wardrobe malfunction – as one of the first female executives at Chase Manhattan Bank, at a salary half that of men in the same position.
She later became president of First Women’s Bank, founded after the 1974 passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Implausibly, women had previously not been permitted to establish credit under their own names.
Finding herself irritated that there were no children’s oriented finance books, she decided to write one. But in order to get The Kids Money Book published, she had to first purchase a publishing company division through a leveraged buyout. Appearances on Oprah helped propel her book, Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Financially Responsible Children to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list.
Among other things, she also founded the First Children’s Bank in that happiest of NYC stores, FAO Schwarz. “We all need to teach our kids about their choices, and about what money can do and what money can’t do, or they’re going to start confusing net-worth with self-worth.”
Godfrey and Janke later spoke of UN Women global humanitarian efforts to put an end to atrocities such as sex trafficking, rape, violence and genital mutilation. The USNC also continues to advocate for income equality in this country.
“There are things that have to be done for people who are less fortunate than we are,” said Godfrey. “There are women around the world who would never be sitting in a room like we are tonight. There are women in the world who literally have no rights. There are countries in the world where rape is not a crime.”
“In those countries, when a woman is raped, the woman is killed and the man is whipped. There are places in the Middle East where the woman has no name; she is the wife of, or the daughter of, or the mother of,” said Janke. “She has no rights; nothing.”
“We give those women who have no voice, a voice. We have a voice,” said Godfrey. “If we just pool our resources in little amounts, major things happen.”
