Today I did an interview with Brad Davis of WDRC in Bloomfield, CT and Brad asked me why financial self-sufficiency is so important to women survivors of domestic violence.

I told Brad that when I left my ex-husband I was 39 years old and during our marriage he dominated the family finances. In spite of the fact that I was a vice president with a Wall Street insurance company and managed corporate budgets in the millions of dollars annually, I would turn over my earnings to my ex-husband who gave me an allowance that I had to account for. I was 39 years old when I left him and I didn't even have my own checking account.

As a kid, money was never discussed in our house, and for the twenty years of my marriage, my ex-husband controlled our finances.

Domestic violence includes physical, emotional, sexual and economic abuse. The abuser controls the finances as a means of control over the victim. The women arrive at shelters bewildered and scared and so many don’t even have a credit card or any money of their own. And once she has left she can count on the abuser cutting off any access to family funds.

If women are to stay out of abusive relationships they must be financially literate.