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                                                                                     3rd Quarter 2012
              Womenable E3 News
In This Issue
Feeding Your Womenabling Spirit
Girl Power
Women Feeding the World
Research Round-up
Feeding Your Womenabling Spirit   

Laboring in the vineyards of women's economic empowerment can be a tiring task at times. Sometimes we feel like Sisyphus - two steps forward, one step back - and at other times we can feel overwhelmed with the need we see in so many areas. So, we all need to take some time to relax and refresh.

One way we do it here at Womenable is to take in a TED Talk. Here are some of our favorites. If you save this e-news and, every week or so, click on one of the links below, you'll be glad you did!

Madeleine Albright: On being a woman and a diplomat (13:00)

Lisa Gansky: The future of business is the "mesh" (14:48)

Margaret Heffernan: Dare to disagree (12:56)

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon: Women entrepreneurs, example not exception (13:16)

Benjamin Zander: The transformative power of classical music (20:47)

The folks at TED have put together something really cool that we're sure you'll also want to try out: the Surprise Me player. Click on it and be surprised by an interesting talk you may not otherwise have sought out, and expand your mind!

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Beyonce Knowles


 
"Who runs the world? Girls!" 
 
singer & entrepreneur. 
Feeding the World, Fueling the Future    
old picture ladies with telescope  
This issue of our quarterly e-newsletter combines a look forward at some wonderful efforts to empower the women of the future (girls!) with an examination of who feeds most of the mouths on the planet (women!). 
 
And, of course, we share some links to the latest womenabling research. Something for everyone to chew on!
The Women Leaders of Tomorrow
A look at initiatives focused on girls        

girl in front of desk While they may not run the world quite yet, the empowerment of girls is getting increasing attention. Back in the First Quarter 2011 Womenable E-news, we took a look at several efforts focused on girl power, including Girls Inc., Girls for a Change, and girleffect.org.

In this issue, we take this youthful focus a step further to share several initiatives that are providing entrepreneurship education, inspiration and accolades to girls and young women.

Of course, one must start with the the longest-standing girls empowerment program, the Girl Scouts, which has established a K-12, multi-pronged financial literacy program that includes multiple badges in various aspects of entrepreneurship, leveraging its very popular annual Girl Scout cookie sales. Download and read this compelling program description. The Girl Scouts have also launched an inspiring video series, It's Your Business - Run It!

But there's a lot more out there now designed to get girls thinking entrepreneurially from a young age, including:
  • Girls Inc's Corporate Camp for Entrepreneurs, which brings girls to New York City to meet with and learn from successful women entrepreneurs,
  • The Girls CEO Connection blog series, which provides news, commentary and inspiration for young entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs,
  • Studio 9, a new business incubation centre specifically targeted at young women entrepreneurs in Dubai, and
  • The Young Entrepreneur Series, a program of the Michigan Association of Female Executives in operation since 2004, which empowers girls from 14 to 18 to think and act entrepreneurially.
We were disappointed to find out recently that Guardian's Girls Going Places program has been discontinued. For the past five or more years the program had given girls scholarships to launch businesses, featuring a national contest that culminated in the presentation of the winning business idea at the annual National Association of Women Business Owners national conference. Maybe someone else will pick up this worthy baton.

Finally, for both teens and Millennials, there's under30ceo.com, a great website and social media community. We especially love their Under30CEO Awards and their list of the top 15 young women entrepreneurs, who range in age from 15 to 29. After reviewing all of these great efforts, we can see that the future will be in good hands!

Women Feeding the World

Feminizing the food chain


woman farmer World Food Day is coming up next month, and the theme this year is "Agricultural Cooperatives: Key to Feeding the World." And who do you think populates those cooperatives, and feeds much of the world? Women! According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), women comprise 43% of the agricultural labor force in developing economies and, because they have less access to land ownership, other legal rights, and tools to increase productivity, their yields are often lower. According to the FAO's 2011 report, The State of Food and Agriculture: Women in Agriculture, if women in rural areas had the same access to land, technology, financial services, education and markets as men, agricultural production could be increased and the number of hungry people reduced by 100 to 150 million worldwide.
 
So what's being done to close this gender gap in agriculture? There are a number of initiatives to call attention to. First, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has a Women in Agriculture initiative, including a two-year fellowship program for African women working in agricultural sciences. To date they have awarded 180 fellowships.
 
Secondly, we all know that crops need water, so agriculture and assess to water are inextricably intertwined. PepsiCo recently received international recognition (during World Water Week just last month) for its water stewardship efforts, including greater efficiencies in their bottling plants worldwide, and their work with a number of organizations to promote better access to drinking water and irrigation for agriculture.
 
Finally, to keep track of progress in gender equality in agriculture, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has launched a Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index, which will assess, by means of household surveys of both women and men, five key areas of women's empowerment in agriculture: 
  1. decisions about farming and agricultural production,
  2. power over resources like land and livestock, 
  3. control over spending and income,
  4. leadership in the community, and
  5. time use.
The information that is now being gathered as a part of this effort will allow policymakers, development aid providers, and other enabling organizations to make more effective investments. 

The International Center for Research on Women has also explored this issue, and published several valuable reports over the years, including the recent Invisible Market: Energy and Agricultural Technologies for Women's Economic Advancement.
Research Round-up 
The latest womenabling research for your reference shelves

woman on computer Even though the summer months (here in the northern hemisphere at least) can mean a slowdown in the publication of research reports, we nonetheless have new womenabling research to share: 
  • First of all, there's a great new Gender Data Portal at the World Bank, featuring a wide range of gender equality statistics and trends. We we know you'll want to bookmark this link and visit the site regularly,
  • Secondly, McKinsey has issued the 5th report in their "Women Matter" series, which focuses mainly on the state of women's leadership in corporate environments. The new report, Women Matter 2012: Making the Breakthrough, examines the roles that women play in the leadership of 235 large European countries, finding that some progress has been made, but much remains to be done,
  • The Cherie Blair Foundation has launched a technology-enabled mentoring program for women business owners, which matches up mentors and proteg�es around the globe, and
  • If accessing government procurement markets is your thing, you'll be interested in reading Women and Minority Contractors: Divergent Paths to Equal Success, a report authored by Womenable for American Express OPEN's Victory in Procurement program. There are four reports analyzing the latest survey conducted among active small business contractors. Learn more about all of them HERE.
We'd love to hear from you. Are you finding our quarterly news digest useful? Have we missed any important womenabling news/events of note? Thanks as always for your attention and support, and please connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and "like" us on Facebook!
 
Sincerely,
Julie R. Weeks
Womenable