We are obsessed with Taylor Swift. Swiftmania is larger than life. Reporters cover the impact of her record-breaking, money-generating concerts. Others ask whether she is paid enough, or how her lyrics and performances affect our psychology.
In all our discussions about how Taylor Swift concerts bolster local economies or how she is now the highest-paid female entertainer, one critical element goes under the radar. It lingers in the air like teen spirit, residing deep within the subliminal mindset of the most dedicated Swifty. It’s like a vaguely familiar face or a distant memory, remaining just out of focus. The vibe — yet to be called out but so clearly omnipresent — centers on the growing economic power and control of women’s purse and voice.
Call it a feeling, a movement, a mood. I call it Swiftynomics. It’s the style of iterative, reinventive, look-what-you-made-me-do feminism that has everything to do with how we interpret and understand the economic actions of women today. Demonstrated effectively by Taylor Swift (and embodied by the very fans who pushed back against Ticketmaster for the online debacle of sales for The Eras tour), it builds off of generations of women who, for centuries, have reinvented their role in the economy and the world around them.
Our obsession with all things Taylor Swift is a magnifying glass pushing Swiftynomics to the forefront, forcing us to reckon with it, acknowledge it, see it.
But, there have been many movers and shakers throughout history who also happen to be female, including Frances Perkins, Rigoberta Menchu, Dolly Parton, Tina Turner, Beyoncé, Ai-jen Poo, your neighbor, the young hipster in the cube down the hall from you at work, your mother, and your grandmother. Generation after generation, women have taken bold actions to build better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities. The talent they ooze professionally gives them freedom of personal choice. Over time and across the globe, women have seen individual decision-making inform their identities, life choices, and futures, continually rewriting the script of what it means to be successful, loving, powerful, economic, and female.
Women are creating new venues to tell their side of the traditionally male-dominated tales we know all too well. Netflix, led by change-making women, has given us relatable female-driven storylines with the likes of Marriage Story, Pamela: A Love Story, Juanita, and The Mother. Reese Witherspoon developed Hello Sunshine to produce movies, including Where the Crawdads Sing, and such TV series as Tiny Beautiful Things, by and for women because, let’s face it, Hollywood could never completely satisfy us. In 2020, a modernized version of the newsroom, The 19th*, sprang up boldly to report about the authentic, complex lives of women; and Disney has been reinventing princesses for at least two decades, breathing life, goals, ambition, and depth into Tiana, Elsa, Mulan, and Moana.
It’s not only Hollywood. Starting in 2016, a dedicated six years of persistence by Megan Rapinoe and the U.S. women’s soccer team to fight for equal pay led to a win in 2022 that was, beyond a doubt, awe-inspiring. In 2021, the Kansas City Current announced they had raised enough private funds to develop the first-ever soccer stadium for a women’s professional team. Why? One can only imagine they did not have the time or patience for misogynistic doubt from a public-private partnership, and today’s women have control over paper (which Beyoncé will tell you is your best revenge).
It’s not just sports. Women have been ascending into leadership roles across the business world. Karen Lynch, CEO of CVS Health, and Rosalind Brewer, CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance (after leadership stints at Sam’s Club and Starbucks), are dominating the community-pharmacy industry. Mary Barra has served as CEO of General Motors, the traditionally male-dominated auto industry, since 2014. And, women of color have been leading the pack reinventing themselves through opening new entrepreneurial businesses as corporate America continues to fail them.
It’s more than private business. Janet Yellen, arguably the most powerful woman in the world, led the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 2014 to 2018, and now leads the U.S. Treasury. Christine Lagarde became the president of the European Central Bank in 2019. Michelle Bachelet was president of Chile twice and then went on to a role as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2018 to 2022. And, in 2020, the United States elected Kamala Harris as its first female vice president.
These new paths give hope, encouragement, and dare I say, joy. Tides are shifting; the water is stirring. Society is changing how it reacts to women who are no longer willing to accept shame and blame for someone else’s bad behavior; women like Tarana Burke (and the #metoo movement), Stormy Daniels, Christine Blasey Ford, and E. Jean Carroll. The stories told in the book-made-into-a-movie, She Said, about the women who stood up to a major Hollywood mogul, have grit, sensitivity, and belief behind them. And with the Taylor Swift-Scooter Braun drama, every Taylor’s Version release is an epic middle finger to the society of yesteryear that controlled women’s behavior through shame, humiliation, and intimidation — as was her win in the 2017 sexual harassment countersuit against a Colorado DJ.
Women leaders of today were raised by a generation of baby boomer parents, born on the heels of the civil rights movement, the legalization of abortion, and the development of Title IX. They’ve quietly ascended into positions of power, influencing what society sees, hears, and digests. Their parents raised them to be anyone, do anything, to thirst for equality and equity. Today these daughters and sons continue to silently rewrite the flawed stereotypical script of gender into a more realistic version where both women and men have passions, desires, grit, and determination to live their fullest lives.
These adult children are building not only careers but the next generation of families. Families where most mothers work for pay and raise children, although this configuration has been true for decades for many Black families and most families living near or below poverty. Even though the pandemic tried its best to knock down women and caregivers, 75% of prime-age mothers with school-age kids were in the labor force in March 2023. Their highest labor force participation (LFP) since the 1960s, or rather since the beginning of the regular collection and reporting of federal government statistics on LFP.
Female caregivers are not just dipping their toes into a lukewarm economy; they are on fire in a way that burns economic gains from misogynistic rejections and stirs sweet lemonade from the most sour gender-wage-gap lemons. Women are jumping headfirst into meaningful jobs and careers. The sweetest cooling tingle from today’s fresh economic waters opens burning desires that have left us craving more and not wanting to give it up when we do start families of our own — which explains why many of us are always so exhausted and why childcare and family-leave policies need to catch up urgently.
But it is at this juncture I ask, curiously: Is Taylor Swift really leading this economic revolt or following the rest of us into it? Am I putting too much faith in this thirty-something superstar?
While this might sound like a criticism of Taylor and her ilk, it is not. Instead, it’s a recognition, call it a celebration even, of the multiple women who have been killing it in this economy in their own unique ways today and for decades. Yes, women have struggles. Yes, equality and equity in the workplace and, especially, in the home need more attention, effort, and care. But we shouldn’t let those struggles drag us down . . . entirely.
Women have a lot to be excited for as shifting expectations recreate what it means to be a woman and an economic agent today. And, who better to share our light with than the eternal optimist, the karma-driven queen, the diva of reinvention, Taylor Swift. The reality of it all is that this Swiftynomics vibe is here to stay, and the women of today have never been luckier.
*This story first appeared online July 16, 2023 in Fast Company and the original can be found here. Misty L. Heggeness is an expert on gender and the economy and is the author of the upcoming book Swiftynomics: Women in Today’s Economy.