It is our aim, 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, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and multi-lateral organizations (MLOs), public sector agencies, civil society groups and educational institutions. Yet we all share a common interest in supporting women's enterprise in communities around the world.

We hope that you find this information of interest in your pursuit of that goal. Enjoy, Engage and Enable!

It sure seems to us that 2009 was chock full of conflicting information about the economic status of women in our society. There were several "glass half full" reports issued, which stated that:

• Women are poised to comprise half of the workforce in the US, and nearing that mark in many other developed nations. (See The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything and a recent article entitled "Female power" in The Economist.) Indeed, the latest statistics from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, issued in early February, showed that this mark has now been reached.
• Women-owned firms in the US could, by the year 2018, account for as much as one-third of all new jobs and half of small business jobs. (Read this press release from the Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute.) Womenable is not so sure that this worthy landmark can be reached in such a short time. (Read our commentary on this point in The Womenabler Blog.)
• The Center for Women's Business Research published a report last October adding a new, expanded estimate of the economic impact of women-owned enterprises to the mix - one which includes both "indirect" and "induced" effects in addition to direct employment and revenues. (Womenable is ambivalent about whether these new estimates are a step forward or will be misused and contribute to computational confusion.)
  

There were also several recent "glass half empty" studies published, which found that:

• The UN's lofty Millennium Development Goals - targets aimed at halving world poverty by 2015 - are, in some cases, far from being achieved.
• Women still lag far behind in leadership positions in ten different sectors of society, according to the White House Project's well-researched new report, Benchmarking Women's Leadership. 
• Women start out their corporate careers one step behind their male colleagues, and the gap persists - even widens - as their careers advance, regardless of parental status or level of personal ambition. See Catalyst's new report, "Pipeline's Broken Promise."
  

Putting one foot firmly on each side of this debate, the best-selling new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and wife/co-author Sheryl WuDunn, "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide." The book, now in its 20th printing, recounts their journeys to developing nations and highlights how far we really are from that well-known saying from Chairman Mao. However, they optimistically point out a number of ways that the gender gap can be narrowed.

Certainly this cornucopia of recent information illustrates that - as we begin this new year and new decade - while much progress has been made, much work remains to be done. Time to get busy, womenablers!

We womenablers all know that the 8th of March is International Women's Day, when many nations around the world celebrate the unique roles and achievements of women in society. Many countries extend their recognition of women's accomplishments to the entire month of March. (Other nations celebrate women in other months more appropriate to their history, like Canada in October and South Africa in August.)

 

To learn more about all of the events happening around the world on International Women's Day, visit internationalwomensday.com.

One thing we'd suggest doing during this month of celebration and focus on women's issues is to visit a museum - with your colleagues, friends, or family (especially youngsters). There are many museums around the world that focus exclusively on one famous woman (like the Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum in Delhi), a group of women (like the National Cowgirl Museum in Ft. Worth, Texas), or women in general. Here are a few of them:

• The International Museum of Women, an online museum "exhibiting social change." Of special interest, a current exhibit entitled "Economica," about women's economic empowerment.
• Six physical museums in the United States focused on women in various professions.
• A listing of a number of women-focused museums and collections in Europe can be found here - including the  Frauenmuseum in Austria and the Zensk Infoteka in Croatia. Also of interest - a national Women's Museum in Denmark.
• The Hanoi Women's Museum and the Nam Bo Women's Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
• A brand new women's museum in Gambia.

So celebrate Women's History Month by heading off to a women's museum near you. Here's hoping that you learn something new, and can share the experience with others.