* Irrational pay differences persist. Grade point averages (GPA) are a strong predictor of future earnings, a recent study found, but a woman with a 4.0 can expect to earn as much as a man who earned a 2.0. The Institute for Women's Policy Research says at its current rate pay equity will be reached by 2058.
* Women graduate college at greater rates and become entry-level employees at Fortune 500 companies equally. Yet only 4.2 of such companies promoted women to CEOs despite improved financial outcomes for those with female senior management. Globally, women hold 9 percent of CEO jobs.
* Since 1997 women's numbers of economic majors have declined, now stuck at 29 percent. Only 15 percent of tenured economic professors are female, says the American Economic Association; such positions influence think tanks and national policy.
* On Wall Street women face "bro-talk" and pranks, like a pizza topped with unwrapped condoms, reports the NY Times. A 2015 Bloomberg Business Week survey tracked MBA graduates over 6-8 years, and found females earned 20 percent less, and on Wall Street, nearly 40 percent less.
* The bigger the assets of a bank or credit union, the fewer its female managers. No woman has ever headed the nation's biggest banks. Morgan Stanley settled a $46 million gender class action suit in 2007, and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch settled a similar case in 2013 with as many as 4, 800 individual payments totaling $39 million.
* In 2017 the US Senate was 21 percent women and the US House 19 percent. No woman currently heads a national finance or budget committee. Health care reform affecting one-sixth of the US economy and millions of women's jobs and families was negotiated behind closed doors by 13 men.
* By contrast, Screwnomics celebrates a Fortune Magazine report of increased numbers of women-owned businesses between 1997-2015, a rate of startups 1.5 times the national average. Women now own 9.4 million firms, and black females are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs.
Industry Reviews
2019 IPPY Silver Medal Winner in Women's Issues
"Diamond's wit and charm, combined with Todd's quirky art, succeed in creating an economic primer that's both informative and fun...A smart, comprehensive economics guide with a feminist twist...her experience as a novelist, journalist, and professor are all brought to bear to demystify difficult concepts..."
-Kirkus Reviews
"Very, very highly recommended for the average woman who seeks a better understanding of how the American financial system works, why it's so often stacked against females, and what to do about it."
-Midwest Book Review
"A timely critique, and needed story. Masculinity's measure by money is not only ludicrous, it's getting downright dangerous."
-Nomi Prins, former managing director, Goldman Sachs, and author of All the Presidents' Bankers: The Hidden Alliances that Drive American Power
"Screwnomics tells it as it is-and shows that it does not have to be this way. We can build a more humane economy...."
-Riane Eisler, Author of The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics & The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future.
"Important work-may there be many more women's voices in economics! And long may the existing work of women economists be acknowledged in this way."
-Jane Gleeson-White, author of Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Created Modern Finance and Six Capitals: or Can Accountants Save the Planet?
"A hopeful book that shows changes are not only possible, but necessary, and are already happening where women have a say."
-Les Leopold of The Labor Institute, author of Runaway Inequality.
"This smart and brave new book is not only educational and insightful, but damn fun reading. In this #metoo time, it could not be more timely."
-Bronwyn Fryer, author and former Senior Editor at Harvard Business Review
"Banking in the public interest is only one of Diamond's topics, but its implications are huge, especially for small businesses where women's numbers are growing."
-Ellen Brown, Public Banking Institute, Democracy Collaborative, and author of Web of Debt and The Public Banking Solution
"We so much need this kind of book. I'm sending this to members of my old 1970s collective, Men Against Patriarchy; there will be rejoicing."
-George Lakey, author of Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians Got it Right and How We Can Too
"Everyone can learn something from Screwnomics. It takes apart our economic assumptions and practices, piece by painful piece, to show underlying bias and inequity. It also gives us tools...for learning conversations."
-Gwendolyn Hallsmith, author of Creating Wealth: Growing Local Economies with Local Currencies and LASER: Local Action for Sustainable Economic Renewal
"Rickey Gard Diamond's life experience provides clear guidance....Required reading for achieving full gender equality and human rights!"
-Hazel Henderson, author of Creating Alternative Futures: The End of Economics and Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy
"In time to capitalize on the #MeToo movement, Diamond, fiction writer and author of the award-winning series An Economy of Our Own for Vermont Woman, dissects the foundation of economics: what it is and why it must change, from the female point of view. She simplifies the complex-CDOs and Pareto efficiency, for just two examples-and streamlines everyday money talk...No one is spared, from Congress to economists such as Milton Friedman. Diamond's solutions are logical yet will spark debate among all demographics, all geographies."
-Barbara Jacobs, Booklist
