Lean In Sparks Push Back
Credit where credit's due: Sheryl Sandberg's recent embrace of the "f" word (feminism in this case) and the platform she enjoys as COO of Facebook have really brought the issue of the lack of women at corporate leadership tables into renewed focus, and sparked a whirlwind of commentary along the way - in the mainstream press, on social media channels, among bloggers, and among women in businesses large and small. A recent Womenabler blogpost weighs in on the "lean in" phenomenon:
"Leaning in: It began, perhaps, with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's December 2010 TEDWomen talk on why there are so few women leaders (which has now garnered 2.1 million views on TED.com and YouTube). Her ideas were further refined in her May 2011 commencement speech at Barnard College, and have now been expanded and formalized into a new book, Lean in: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, which is - in true social media fashion - feeding into the launch of a web platform, leanin.org. "All of these missives revolve around Sandberg's view that too many women shy away from stepping up to the plate at the workplace, muffling their own ambitions and thereby short-changing their careers. On the face of it, not too controversial, but my, oh my what a firestorm of responses her views have sparked! Womenable pointed to ..." CLICK HERE to read on.
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"You take people as far as they will go, not as far as you would like them to go." ~
Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973), first woman to be elected to the US Congress (from Montana in 1916)
"The time is long overdue
to encourage more women
to dream the possible dream."
~ Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (1969- ),
in her new book,
Lean In: Women, Work & The Will to Lead
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The State of Women's Entrepreneurship
This issue of our quarterly e-newsletter provides womenablers with a comprehensive report on the state of women-owned businesses in the US, a ground-breaking look at the growth of million-dollar women-owned firms, and a choral reflection on women's empowerment more generally during this Women's History Month.
Read, reflect, comment, and press play!
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The State of US Women-Owned Firms
Perseverance through the recession, remarkable growth among women of color
For the third year running, Womenable and American Express OPEN have teamed up to bring womenablers everywhere a comprehensive report on the state of women-owned businesses in the US. Drawing upon the detailed information available from the US Census Bureau's quinquennial Survey of Business Owners, our State of Women-Owned Businesses reports provide up-to-date population estimates, an engaging and actionable analysis of key trends, and add new insights in every edition.
We now know that, as of 2013, there are 8.6 million majority women-owned businesses in the United States, generating over $1.3 trillion in revenue and employing nearly 7.8 million people in addition to themselves.
Taking a special look at employment growth since the Great Recession of 2007-08 finds that the private sector economy has gained a net 5.3 million jobs since 2007 - consisting of a 5.9 million gain from large, publicly-traded corporations and a net loss of nearly 600,000 jobs from smaller, privately-held businesses. The only privately-held firms adding jobs since 2007? Women-owned firms!
The report also chronicles the remarkable rise of firms owned by women of color. Back in 1997, minority women-owned firms numbered just under 1 million and represented one out of every six (17%) women-owned firms. Now, there are an estimated 2.7 million firms owned by women of color, which now comprise one in three (31%) women-owned firms. This growth is nothing short of phenomenal - and our new report provides detailed information on the current number, economic contributions and growth trends among African American, Asian American, Latina, Native American/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander women-owned businesses.
The publication points out the top states and metropolitan areas for women-owned firms - not only by size but by growth in economic clout (a combination of growth rates in number, employment and revenues) - and takes a look at continuing industry diversification among women-owned firms.
We also invite you to share the news of this new report with others in your social media networks. Spread the good word!
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Growing Under the Radar:
An exploration of the achievements of $1M+ women-owned firms  While the number of women-owned firms continues to grow at rates exceeding the national average, not only here in the US but in many other countries as well, womenablers have long been frustrated by the fact that the average size of women-owned firms remains smaller than average, and that the share of women-owned firms at the highest levels of achievement have remained essentially unchanged over the past 15+ years. Just 2% of women-owned firms in the US have revenues of $1 million or more, the same as in 1997. A new analysis of heretofore unpublished data from the US Census Bureau shows us a silver lining in this cloud. Looking in greater detail at the population of million dollar-plus firms reveals that the number of women-owned firms with $10 million or more in sales has grown by 57% over the past decade, in comparison with a 38% increase among all $10M+ firms. Thus, growth in the number of women-owned firms of highest revenue achievement is fully 47% higher than growth among their peers.
Learn more about this ground-breaking new analysis, and download the free 12-page report, by reading this Womenabler blogpost. |
We're Loud & We're Proud
Songs of praise and protest in video
When women get together, we frequently sing songs of praise and protest. Indeed, song has bound together movements for generations - so why not the women's movement?
Now we again turn our focus to song. First off, we wanted to make sure you get a chance to tap your toes to One Woman, which comes to us from UNWomen; proceeds from song downloads will go to their good cause.  | | One Woman: A Song for UN Women |
Secondly, there was a recent flashmob social media campaign to mark V Day - celebrated primarily as Valentine's Day, but more recently used to call attention to the appalling fact that one out of three women (fully one billion women) will be the victims of violence during their lifetime.
Under the One Billion Rising moniker (I love their tagline: 1 billion women violated is an atrocity; 1 billion women dancing is a revolution), thousands of local groups got together to perform - flashmob style in some cases - to the song "Break the Chain," written to highlight the issue. Here's one example of the performance of the song, from India:
 | | One Billion Rising (Break the Chain) performed by New Light girls |
And here's the video performance that's garnered the highest number of views on YouTube (over 172,000), from San Francisco:
 | | One Billion Rising flash mob |
Check out others at onebillionrising.org/livestream. And learn more about the song and the choreography HERE.
These are just a few examples of the growing power of social media to deploy aural advocacy. Sing out, sisters! |
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We'd love to hear from you. Are you finding our quarterly news digest useful? Any suggestions for future topics?
Thanks as always for your attention and support, and please connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter, "like" us on Facebook - and forward this e-mail to your womenabling colleagues!
Sincerely, |
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