October has been a dizzying month keeping track of the most powerful women. Forbes, Fortune, and U.S. Banker all rang in with their picks, while Institutional Investor named their all-stars. Well, after waiting here like Linus who sits in the pumpkin patch anticipating the arrival of the Great Pumpkin, I received no such accolades. (Ok, I wasn’t really serious about that.)

While I don’t mean to take anything away from the achievements of the honorees, other news this month regarding women’s status in finance remained daunting. A Blooomberg article summed up many of the findings:

Women in finance earned just 63.9 cents for every dollar that men made in 2000;

The financial industry accounted for the largest pay gap in any of the thirteen industries surveyed by the GAO;

The number of women in finance, banking, and insurance fell by 537,000 between the second quarter of 2007 and the second quarter of 2010;

Citigroup has no women on their nineteen member executive committee.

You might ask why you should care –- Wall Street isn’t for you anyway. Well, sure, but that’s looking at this issue through a narrow scope. Even if you’re loathe to acknowledge that finance can ever be an honorable pursuit, role models matter. Girls need to see to understand that basic financial knowledge is essential no matter one’s career choice. According to a recent NEC Report, women are either the primary or co-breadwinner in nearly two-thirds of American families (yet still face a wage gap and underrepresentation at high management levels). Women need to understand their economic power and how to manage their finances responsibly.

When I reflect on this month’s news, I’m both weary of the accolades and wary of the future. Much needs to be done. Not all of that work, though, is the responsibility of others-be they the government, the courts, the corporations, the men, or anyone else, really. No, much of that work needs to be apportioned on an individual basis within the female community.

As friends and new acquaintances learn of my blog, [pettistripes.com] that explores issues about women and finance, I’m still greeted by some extremely capable women who remark that anything numbers-related makes their eyes glaze over or give a cutesy reply, ”Oh, that’s too complicated for me!” That kind of response is about as scary as getting only rocks in your trick-or-treat bag. Stop making excuses. No one says you need to be able to explain the Black-Scholes options pricing model; just learn the basics of financial management and instill that importance in your children. It’s not responsible to shun money matters or to imply that financial literacy and femininity are mutually exclusive. I want to ask these same women, many of whom have husbands who help with traditionally female tasks such as dinner and diapering, why they continue to shy away from numbers. I haven’t yet.

In the meantime, Pettistripes hereby awards the Least Powerful Woman Award to….well, you know who you are…. The good news is that the title is totally returnable once you decide to go after the real award — empowerment. And then you’ll be much better equipped to pursue your dreams, even if they include joining Linus in the pumpkin patch.

This article is an edited version of the original that was published October 27, 2010 on [pettistripes.com]