{"id":8657,"date":"2026-05-22T04:04:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T04:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=8657"},"modified":"2026-05-22T04:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T04:04:20","slug":"financial-insecurity-and-a-mothers-battle-spotlighted-at-womens-philanthropy-fund-breakfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=8657","title":{"rendered":"Financial insecurity and a mother\u2019s battle spotlighted at Women\u2019s Philanthropy Fund breakfast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Class was in session for the early-rising crowd of nearly 700, and the lessons served as a wake-up call for anyone who hadn\u2019t gotten a caffeine kickstart.<\/p>

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A ballroom breakfast gathering in one of the most affluent counties in the nation might have seemed like an odd location to talk about the realities of living paycheck-to-paycheck or without a home. But the audience members at the Hyatt Regency Irvine were enthusiastically receptive. After all, they attended Orange County United Way\u2019s annual Women\u2019s Philanthropy Fund Breakfast on Thursday, May 21, to help their community.<\/p>\n

And after the attendees were challenged with a sobering exercise about tough day-to-day financial decisions, they heard from a mother who escaped domestic violence and worked cleaning homes to care for her daughter, who \u201clearned to walk in a homeless shelter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many, struggle is almost completely wrapped in shame,\u201d said author and featured speaker Stephanie Land, whose book \u201cMaid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother\u2019s Will to Survive\u201d was adapted into a 2021 Netflix limited series starring Margaret Qualley. \u201cWe distance ourselves from stories of hardship.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a defense mechanism, we distance ourselves from people who live in poverty because poverty is a really scary and vulnerable place to imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps it was a little easier for some to imagine than it would\u2019ve been before they arrived.<\/p>

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