An Intersectional Exploration: The Experiences of Southern, Rural, Black and White Women Participating in an Empowerment-Based Entrepreneurial Program
Intersectionality is gaining ground as a desired way of deepening our understanding of persisting inequalities engendered by poverty. Combining an intersectional framework and the idea of strategic gender needs developed by Moser (1993), this study explores the experiences and perceptions of empowerment among rural black and white women in the southern U.S. and highlights the significance of intersectionality in exploring such issues. The findings reveal a diversity of experiences and perceptions of empowerment within the broader construction of womanhood. This paper raises the question about the shared identity of womanhood in rural southern communities. Such an understanding compels us to look closer at how oppressive ideologies become embedded within institutional structures and constrain our understanding of rural poverty. Additionally, this understanding calls us to investigate the capacity of anti-poverty and asset development efforts to work for different groups of women. Efforts such as these hold major implications for the social work profession and others who are challenged to understand and adequately address poverty in rural communities.
Gather in my name, my skin, my everything...('Gather in my name' : Maya Angelou 1974)
Purpose 
 
 
 
 
Based on a performance of a conversation between my white mother and myself – her mixed race black daughter – the purpose of this paper is to deconstruct the complexity of the intersection of migration, racism, sexism, disability, and class within the space and place of the dynamics of our relationship. “Migration” and “borders” metaphors explore the “in between space that is neither here nor there” addressing key issues such as “migratory subjectivity” or, in other words, the translation of the process of inclusion and exclusion across the borders of oppressive social constructions to the lived emotional experience of being a mother and a daughter. 
 
 
 
 
Design/methodology/approach 
 
 
 
 
I explore my lived experience as black woman raised by a white Mum. My decision to use intersectionality as a tool with which to explore my personal experiences was based on me finding it enabled me to fully engage with the freedom of exploration, without feeling the need to “fit” with what was expected, in other words to be free to be able to express the “[…] lived experience of a presumed ‘Other’ and to experience it viscerally” (Orbe and Boylorn, 2014, p. 15). 
 
 
 
 
Findings 
 
 
 
 
A truthful account to aid the understanding of the complexities faced in the lived experience of a white mother and her black daughter. 
 
 
 
 
Research limitations/implications 
 
 
 
 
This piece has no limitations, and contains far reaching implications for social work practice and research methods. 
 
 
 
 
Practical implications 
 
 
 
 
This piece is embedded in social education and can be used as a research tool for best practice in anti-racist, black feminist practice. 
 
 
 
 
Social implications 
 
 
 
 
Social implications include a potential impact on diverse communities, with relevance to community engagement, social work practice placements, and critical reflection, and also education of the young to help them understand their own journeys. 
 
 
 
 
Originality/value 
 
 
 
 
This is an original report of an evidence-based lived experience, integrating theory to practice.
Retirement Savings Shortfalls: Evidence from EBRI's Retirement Security Projection Model®
EBRI previously published extensive analysis that focused on the EBRI Retirement Readiness Ratings™ -- the probability that households will not run short of money in retirement. This paper expands the earlier analysis by providing similar analysis of the EBRI Retirement Savings Shortfalls (RSS) -- the size of the deficits that households are simulated to generate in retirement. The Retirement Savings Shortfalls show that for those on the verge of retirement (Early Baby Boomers), the deficits vary from $19,304 (per individual) for married households, increasing to $33,778 for single males and $62,734 for single females. While these RSS values may appear to be relatively small considering they represent the sum of present values that may include decades of deficits, it is important to remember that less than half of the simulated lifepaths modeled are considered to be “at risk.” Looking only at those situations where shortfalls are projected shows that the values for Early Boomers vary from $71,299 (per individual) for married households, increasing to $93,576 for single males and $104,821 for single females. RSS values are much smaller for Gen Xers with significant years of future eligibility for defined contribution plan participation. The deficit values for Gen Xers assumed to have no future years of eligibility (as if they were never simulated to be employed in the future by an organization that provides access to those plans) is $78,297 per individual. That shortfall decreases substantially (to $52,113) for those with one to nine years of future eligibility, and even further to $32,937 for those with 10-19 years of future eligibility. The results also demonstrate the extreme importance of longevity risk and nursing home and home health care costs in simulating Retirement Savings Shortfalls. Ignoring nursing home and home health care costs (or assuming another entity pays these costs) decreases the RSS by an average of 74 percent whereas the RSS for those in the latest relative longevity quartile average 14.8 times those in the earliest relative longevity quartile. The impact of Social Security retirement benefits on RSS was demonstrated in two ways. A pro rata decrease of between 22 and 27 percent starting in 2033 would increase RSS by an average of 15 percent for Gen Xers. If all Social Security retirement benefits were eliminated in 2015, the average RSS (for Boomers and Gen Xers) would increase by 90 percent. The aggregate national retirement deficit number is currently estimated to be $4.13 trillion for all U.S. households where the head of the household is between 25 and 64, inclusive.