In the discourse of Women’s Economic Empowerment, we have long prioritised “Assets” over “Agency.” We have operated under the assumption that if we provide the capital and the skills, wealth will inevitably follow. However, as my research into the “Shame Tax” has shown, there is a profound psycho-social ceiling that prevents even the most qualified women from converting their expertise into equity. This ceiling is maintained not just by external gatekeepers, but by internal “collection agencies”; subconscious programmes designed to keep us “safe” by keeping us small.
To unlock the estimated $95 billion economic opportunity lost to female self-exclusion, we must move beyond financial literacy and begin the work of internal decommissioning. This year, the path to a true Female Fortune requires us to identify and kick out four specific internal programmes that are currently siphoning our economic power.
The first programme to eliminate is the Minimiser. This is the internal voice that treats every major milestone as an anomaly rather than an achievement. When a woman secures a high-value contract or successfully leads a turnaround, the Minimizer immediately labels it a “lucky break.” While this is often disguised as humility, it is actually a strategic drain on what I call Behavioural Collateral. In a market where influence is the ultimate currency, refusing to own your track record means you are entering negotiations with a self-imposed deficit. The Minimiser ensures that even when we are in the room, we are not truly seen, because we have already edited out the evidence of our own brilliance.
Closely linked to this is the Apologist, the programme responsible for the “Respect Levy.” This personality manifests in the persistent need to soften our presence to remain palatable. It is the “sorry to bother you” in an email that is actually a valid demand for payment, or the “I could be wrong” preface to a strategic insight. This constant modulation is an exhausting form of emotional labour that signals a lack of entitlement to the authority we have earned. Every apology for our competence is a micro-payment made to a system that was never built to support us. This year, we must recognise that directness is not a lack of grace; it is the language of leadership.
The third and perhaps most culturally entrenched programme is the Moraliser. This personality frames financial ambition as a character flaw, suggesting that to want more is to be “un-African,” “selfish,” or “not a team player.” For many Nigerian women, this programme is a relic of the “Inheritance of Anxiety”; the belief that to be a “good woman” is to be a low-cost one. The Moraliser makes the act of auditing an invoice or demanding a market-rate fee feel like an act of greed. We must realise that an undervalued woman cannot build a legacy. Reclaiming your economic worth is not a moral failing; it is a prerequisite for the impact you were meant to make in your family and community.
Finally, we must decommission the Competence Doubter. This programme is the primary driver of the statistic that 26 percent of qualified women self-select out of funding opportunities. It takes a systemic barrier such as biased questioning from a lender and turns it into a personal inadequacy. Instead of recognising a flawed system, the Doubter asks, “Am I bad with money?” or “Do I truly understand the numbers?” This internal gaslighting is the final barrier to ownership. It causes us to walk away from the table before the conversation even begins, leaving not just money, but our collective power, on the table.
As I have often stated, you cannot rewrite rules you were never meant to read, and you cannot dispute a bill you have never seen. The journey to the Female Fortune begins with an audit of these internal scripts.
We must stop treating our financial lives as a series of literacy errors and start treating them as a territory to be reclaimed. This year, your growth depends on your willingness to stop paying the tax of silence and start exercising the freedom of mind. To begin your own forensic audit and see which of these internal programmes has been managing your books, I invite you to take the Shame Tax Self-Audit. It is time to make the invisible visible and reclaim the currency of your own confidence.
To identify your personal Shame Tax and start your audit, visit: https://talealimi.com/the-female-fortune/
Dr. ‘Tale Alimi is the Founder of REAF Africa, an organisation dedicated to closing the economic gender gap by applying behavioural science and institutional redesign.
