What are the Missing Middle Missing?
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"There is nothing to compare with the courage of ordinary people whose names are unknown and whose sacrifices pass unnoticed. The courage that dares without recognition, without the protection of media attention, is the courage that humbles and inspires and reaffirms our faith in humanity."
~ Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel laureate, human rights activist, and political prisoner
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E3nabling News
It is our goal, in this quarterly newsletter, to provide a concise digest of news, information and links to 1: educate, 2: enlighten and 3: empower your work on behalf of nascent, new, established and growing women-owned enterprises around the world.
Our subscribers come from all walks of life - businesses large and small, NGOs, associations, the public sector and educational institutions - yet all share a common interest in supporting women's enterprise development in their communities and around the world. We hope you find this information of interest.
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E1ducate: News in Brief
This quarter, for your reading pleasure, we bring you news and links to four new reports we think you'll want to know about. They bring you both good news and bad: focusing on disparity and parity, struggle and success. To learn more, read on!
- Disparity: The women's business community in the U.S. has been impatiently awaiting the publication of this report, which confirms what we have already known - that women do not face an equal playing field when selling their goods and services to the U.S. government. The report, "The Utilization of Women-Owned Small Businesses in Federal Contracting", was recently published by the RAND Corporation. Click here to read the press release, and for links to the executive summary and full report. The next step: SBA action in addressing the disparities confirmed by this analysis. Stay tuned for news on this front, but don't hold your breath - this study took seven years to come to fruition!
- Parity: During a news conference on April 18, Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Bertie Ahern, T.D. made brief remarks announcing a 10-year plan to address gender equality issues in the Republic of Ireland, unveiling a National Women's Strategy focused on socio-economic opportunity (including enterprise development), well-being, and equality of engagement. Click on the following links to download and read the complete National Women's Strategy document, either in English or in Gaelic. Go maire tu an la!
- Struggle: A new study just published by Womenable, with the collaboration of The Center for Women's Entrepreneurship at Chatham University and the support of the National Association of Women Business Owners, focuses on the desire, difficulties and dimensions of the "missing middle": established women business owners who have not yet reached the million-dollar threshold. What do they say they need to grow their firms? Read the study press release and download the Research in Brief report here.
- Success: "Meet successful women in business" is the title of a new publication from Invest Northern Ireland. Like the "Voices" reports mentioned in our 4th quarter 2006 E3 newsletter, this publication contains success stories from women business owners in a variety of industries. Check it out, as well as video clips and an earlier success story report, on the Invest Northern Ireland web site.
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E2nlighten: Doing Well by Doing Good
The rise in venture philanthropy and social entrepreneurship
Late last year, Womenable's E3 News shined a lig ht on several organizations that promote direct investment in women's
enterprise development on a small scale, and in our last issue we took a look at angel investing for and by women. In this issue, we turn our attention to the rising impact of venture philanthropy. "Social entrepreneurship" is a term that is gaining increased use around the world. It refers to business enterprises - for-profit or not-for-profit - whose mission centers on improving the human condition. While one might argue that large international corporations can and do improve the human condition, social enterprises "take it to the streets" by providing direct services to populations in need.
While many, if not most, social enterprises receive support from the public sector, there is a new and growing source of funding for social enterprises - venture philanthropists. While George Soros and his Soros Foundations Network may be among the best known venture philanthropists in the modern era, one can look around many cities around the world to see the venture philanthropy of Scottish-American businessman Andrew Carnegie, who underwrote a massive effort in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to build community libraries. Many modern-day philanthropists are reinvesting their wealth (much of it gained from technology-related businesses) into foundations which blend venture capital practices with philanthropic support, hence the term venture philanthropy. Here are some of the most well-known social enterprise-focused foundations and, in some cases, their wealth-harvesting founders: The Stanford Social Innovation Review follows trends in social entrepreneurship around the world, and is a valuable source of information. In addition, the Aspen Institute and its Fund for Innovation, Effectiveness, Learning and Dissemination (FIELD) are good sources of information and best practices in social enterprise, particularly in microenterprise development. Finally, it is worth noting that there is a venture philanthropy association in Europe. Click on these links to learn more about trends in venture philanthropy and social entrepreneurship, who is involved, and how the impact of this community is growing.
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E3mpower: Keeping Score
Rankings and Ratings for Women's Empowerment
It's part of our DNA - wanting to rate and rank, benchmark, and otherwise "keep score". Women's empowerment is no different, so we thought we'd round up and share some sources of rankings and ratings related to women's economic empowerment. Check out these score-keeping sources (which are not in rank-order):
- Last year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published The Global Gender Gap 2006, which ranked 115 economies on 4 areas of gender equity, including economic participation (but not entrepreneurship - as there is a lack of consistent and timely data). What country came out on top? Sweden. At the bottom? Yemen.
- For the past 3 years, credit card provider MasterCard has published a MasterIndex of Women's Advancement - focusing on 13 economies in the Asia-Pacific region. Unlike the WEF list, it focuses primarily on socioeconomic factors, including labor force participation, share of managerial positions, and income. Similar to the WEF list, it does not include a specific measure of business ownership. Nonetheless, it is a useful measure of women's economic progress in the region. Tops on their list? New Zealand.
- Who are the most powerful women in the world? According to Forbes magazine, German Chancellor Angela Merkl tops the list, followed by US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi. The balance of the top 10 is comprised of leading female CEOs and CFOs, led by PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi at number 4. The top entrepreneurial leader? Oprah Winfrey, at number 14.
- Catalyst, a US-based research organization that focuses on women's achievements in top corporations, recently launched a "Metrics" page on their web site, which more clearly lists the corporations that are doing well - and not so well - in promoting women to top management and board positions. In addition to U.S. corporations, Catalyst also monitors and publishes a similar list in Canada (also listed on their Metrics page). Using the Catalyst methodology, the Businesswomen's Association of South Africa monitors women's corporate leadership in that country.
- And, of course (perhaps saving the best for last), the most widespread research and rankings focusing exclusively on the level of entrepreneurial activity among men and women in many economies around the world is contained in the annual Global Entrepreneurship Monitor reports. And we're sure that most of you already know that, for the past three years, GEM has published reports focusing on women and entrepreneurship. The country with the greatest prevalence of entrepreneurial activity by women among the 40 countries studied in 2006? The Philippines, at 49.9%. The lowest share? Belgium, with just 1.9% of adult women engaged in entrepreneurship.
And, while it does not include rank-ordering, we must not forget the motherlode of data gathered by the United Nations and captured in their World's Women reports of 2005 and 2000. See Womenable's 2nd quarter 2006 E3 newsletter for more information and links to those reports.
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Keeping in Touch
New Web Site and Phone Number for Womenable
Last month Womenable debuted a new look and structure for our web site, www.womenable.com. If you haven't visited us in awhile, check it out! We think you'll love our new look and expanded content. Also, Womenable has a new phone number. You may now reach us at: +1-231-326-3300. Please make a note of it!
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We encourage your feedback and comments, as well as your help in spreading our "womenabling" news. Feel free to click below to forward this e-mail to others you feel would be interested in any or all of the articles above. And let us know if there are any aspects of women's enterprise development that you feel we should investigate and share more broadly.
Sincerely,
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