1. Micro-aggressions and the limits of women’s control of their money.
Associate Professor Kris Natalier
School of Social and Policy Studies, Flinders University

2. Micro- aggressions
Subtle forms of discrimination and devaluing directed against people who lack the socio-economic and cultural power of dominant groups in society.
Interactional
Convey denigrating messages to members of marginalized groups
Each interaction is part of a continuing set of experiences
Reinforce dominant ideologies
Erode identities, sense of worth
“small murders” not “grand executions”

3. Micro-assaults
Expressly and deliberately discriminatory and hurtful comments and actions.
“There’s a stigma behind single mothers and that’s what I find, that there’s a stigma behind. There’s that, you’re looked down upon... you know what I feel like? I feel like I beggar. I feel like a beggar who is asking for a handout, that’s how I feel and I’ve always been a worker my whole life.”

4. Micro-invalidations
Exchanges that negate or overrule the lived realities of a person or group.
“This welfare card thing, they don’t trust me to care for my kids: when my kids have noodles it’s because I spent the money on booze or something, not because there’s not enough money, they don’t give me enough.”

5. Micro-insults
Demeaning and undermining interactions, conveying rudeness, insensitivity or insults.
She actually yelled at me. She yelled at me. I’ve been abused because he doesn’t pay and so even the organisation that is supposed to be there to help you they are still making you feel like you’re the guilty party. And it just – it’s soul destroying. … And now because I’m older, people working there are younger than me and to be spoken in the tone of voice that I am by these young people, it’s really degrading. I always come away feeling like I am of no use, I am completely worthless and that society looks down their nose at me.

6. Recognizing the macro through the micro
Identifiable in interactions between individuals
Rooted in and reinforce marginalizing, discriminatory, and oppressive structures
Women who aren’t in paid labour or receiving financial transfers:
Are unproductive
Not pulling their weight
Have no claim on “others’” money
Cannot be trusted to claim or use money
Do not deserve respect