Taxing the Patriarchy: Creating a More Equitable Financial System
Session Type(s): Panel
Starts: Thursday, Aug. 13 11:00 AM (Eastern)
Ends: Thursday, Aug. 13 11:50 AM (Eastern)
Too many women and families around the country are set up to fail by stagnating wages, poor quality jobs, and huge barriers to building wealth—and the tax system is part of the problem. The Trump tax cuts overwhelmingly went to the top 1% and corporations at the expense of women and families of color. Our tax system is upside down, benefiting the wealthy and mega-corporations over working families. This panel will walk you through the ways our financial institutions and tax system perpetuate inequality for women and people of color and how we can reconfigure that system to be more equitable.
Moderator
Janelle Jones
Before joining Groundwork in 2018, Janelle was an economic analyst at Economic Policy Institute working on a variety of labor market topics within EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy. Prior to that, Janelle worked as a research associate at the Center for Economic Policy Research, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Her work has focused on labor markets, racial inequality, unemployment, unions and job quality. Her research has been cited in The New Yorker, The Economist, Harper’s, The Washington Post, The Review of Black Political Economy, and other publications.
Janelle served as an AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer in Sacramento, California, where she worked for a grassroots nonprofit on community health issues. She also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru in the Small Business Development Program focusing on local economic development.
Janelle is from Northeast Ohio and a very proud graduate of Spelman College.
Panelists
Amy Matsui
Amy Matsui works on a broad range of economic issues affecting low- and moderate-income women and families, with special emphasis on federal tax policy. Her work comprises policy analysis, state and federal advocacy, and public education and outreach. Prior to joining the Center in 2002, Amy practiced law in the private sector. She clerked for the Honorable Carolyn Dineen King, then-Chief Judge of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in 2000. Amy is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and Stanford Law School.
Elyssa Schmier
Elyssa is the National Director, National Budget and Taxes for MomsRising. Her career has been focused on legislative and policy work in the field of poverty policy. She previously served as the Deputy Policy Director for the Jewish Council of Public Affairs and as a Legislative Representative for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Elyssa has also worked in Senator Edward Kennedy’s Office, as well as Representative John Tierney’s office. She received her bachelor’s degree from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and her master’s degree in government at Johns Hopkins University. Originally from Swampscott, MA, Elyssa now resides in Huntington Woods, MI