California’s New Financial Literacy Mandate Is a Women’s Economic Power Story

California is making a policy change that deserves more attention from anyone serious about women’s economic power.

Beginning in the 2027–28 school year, California public high schools will be required to offer a stand-alone semester course in personal finance. Beginning with the graduating class of 2030–31, students will have to complete it to graduate.

Students will learn about income, banking, credit, debt, taxes, investing, retirement accounts, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, index funds, and other fundamentals of personal finance.

That is more than financial literacy.

It is economic infrastructure.

And for girls growing up in the state with more women-led businesses than any other state, it matters.

We Keep Entering the Capital Conversation Too Late

I’m currently conducting stakeholder research for the Brazen Capital Movement, exploring how to better connect women’s capital with women-led businesses and innovation.

One thing is becoming increasingly clear:

You cannot solve the capital problem by starting with venture capital.

Capital has an ecosystem.

Before a woman becomes an investor, she needs to understand investing.

Before she can participate more fully in capital markets, she needs the knowledge and capability to act.

And before she can influence where significant amounts of capital move, she generally needs opportunities to build assets, ownership, and investing experience.

That means financial education belongs much earlier in the conversation.

We spend a great deal of time asking why more women are not writing angel checks, becoming limited partners, starting funds, or financing women-led companies.

Those questions matter.

But they are downstream questions.

The upstream question is:

How do we create more women who understand capital early enough to participate in it, own it, and eventually influence where it goes?

California’s mandate is one answer to that question.

The Knowledge Gap Matters

A 2022 Bank of America study found that 94% of women surveyed expected to be personally responsible for their finances at some point in their lives.

Yet only 48% said they felt confident about their finances, and 28% felt empowered to take action.

Confidence dropped further around investing. Just 53% felt confident managing investments, while 44% felt confident creating a diversified portfolio. Lack of knowledge was one of the barriers women identified to investing.

New York Life found another part of the same pattern.

In its 2024 Wealth Watch research, 42% of women said they had received formal financial literacy education, compared with 53% of men.

Women also reported a 17-point knowledge gap with men in both building wealth and managing investments. Half of the women surveyed said they changed their financial strategy after gaining knowledge about a financial topic.

That last finding matters.

Education does not guarantee wealth.

It does not eliminate structural barriers.

And one high school course will not erase gender disparities in pay, ownership, investing, or access to capital.

But knowledge can change behavior.

And financial behavior compounds.

California Is Changing the Starting Position

Imagine a girl graduating from a California public high school a decade from now.

Before receiving her first full-time paycheck, she has already encountered:

Compound growth.

Credit and interest.

Investing.

Retirement accounts.

Diversification.

Taxes.

Debt.

The difference between saving and investing.

That does not mean every girl will become an investor.

It does not mean one semester of personal finance will eliminate gender wealth disparities.

That is not the standard.

The more important question is:

Does this remove a barrier earlier?

Yes.

California is changing the default from:

Someone should probably teach young people this.

to:

Every student should learn this.

That is what systemic intervention looks like.

The significance is not that every student will leave high school financially sophisticated.

The significance is that financial knowledge is no longer being treated as optional knowledge reserved for families who already understand how money works.

It becomes part of the baseline.

That changes the starting position.

Not Every Policy for Women Has to Say “Women”

This is what I find particularly important.

California’s requirement is gender-neutral.

Every student benefits.

But policies do not have to be exclusively designed for women to strengthen women’s economic position.

We often focus on women-specific interventions:

Accelerators.

Grants.

Business programs.

Investor networks.

Those matter.

But sometimes the more powerful intervention is changing the infrastructure everyone moves through.

If women report receiving less formal financial education and lower knowledge or confidence around investing, then putting that education into the public-school baseline matters.

It does not solve every inequality.

It does something more foundational.

It reduces the chance that women arrive at adulthood without ever having been introduced to concepts that shape ownership, investing, and wealth creation.

This raises a question I think more people working on women’s economic advancement should be asking:

Instead of asking only what programs women need later, what infrastructure should we change earlier so fewer women need remediation at all?

That is a different way of thinking about women’s economic power.

California Already Has the Foundation

California is an especially interesting place for this policy to take effect.

A 2025 research brief from the University of Southern California, prepared for the CalChamber Women’s Leadership Council, found that California is home to 1.5 million women-led companies, more than any other state.

That means California already has an extraordinary base of women participating in entrepreneurship.

Now consider what happens if the financial pipeline underneath that entrepreneurial base becomes stronger.

More girls understand investing earlier.

More women participate in capital markets.

More women acquire productive and financial assets.

More women build ownership.

More women gain experience deciding where their money goes.

More women eventually wield greater influence over where capital flows.

And potentially, more women-controlled capital reaches women-led businesses and innovation.

That is the larger opportunity.

Capital Has an Ecosystem

The capital continuum I’m increasingly thinking about through the Brazen Capital Movement looks something like this:

Financial Education → Financial Capability → Capital Participation → Asset Ownership → Capital Influence → Innovation

Those stages are not automatic.

And every woman will not move through them in exactly the same order.

But the progression captures something important.

Financial education creates a foundation for capability.

Capability makes participation easier.

Participation can create asset ownership.

Ownership can expand the amount of capital a woman controls.

And greater control creates greater opportunity to influence where capital goes.

That last shift matters.

Because economic power is not only about having money.

It is also about having a say in what money builds.

Which companies get funded.

Which founders get opportunities.

Which technologies reach the market.

Which ideas are allowed to scale.

That is where this becomes directly relevant to the Brazen Capital Movement.

BCM is not simply asking how women founders get more venture capital.

The more interesting question is how the entire ecosystem of women and capital connects:

How women learn about money.

How women participate in markets.

How women acquire assets.

How women build ownership.

How women become investors.

How women influence where capital moves.

And ultimately, how more of that capital can support women-led businesses and innovation.

California is beginning upstream.

BCM is exploring what happens farther downstream.

Different interventions.

Same economic infrastructure.

If We Want More Women Funding the Future, Start Earlier

California has already established a powerful base of women-led entrepreneurship.

Its next opportunity may be even more consequential:

Helping create generations of women who do not simply earn money, but understand how to participate in capital, acquire assets, build ownership, and ultimately influence what gets funded.

Because the future of women’s economic power will not be determined only by how many women start companies.

It will also be determined by how many women understand capital.

How many own assets.

How many invest.

How many influence capital flows.

And how many use that influence to shape what gets built next.

If we want more women funding the future, we should care deeply about what girls are learning about money today.

United we rise. Stay brazen.

—Martise

About the Author

Martise Moore is the founder of BrazenEra, a platform advancing women’s economic power, and creator of the Brazen Capital Movement (BCM), an early-stage initiative exploring how stronger capital pathways, visibility, relationships, and strategic partnerships can expand economic opportunity for women-led businesses and innovation.

She is also the author of the forthcoming book The Brazen Code: How Ambitious Women Override the Bro Code and Multiply Their Money, Power, and Freedom.