Womenable logo sm
                                                                                 1st Quarter 2014
              Womenable E3 News

"I know that women, once convinced that they are doing what is right, that their rebellion is just, will go on, no matter what the difficulties, no matter what the dangers, so long as there is a woman alive to
hold up the flag of rebellion.
I would rather be a rebel than a slave."
~ Emmeline Pankhurst (L, 1858-1928), along with her daughters Sylvia (C, 1882-1960) and Christabel (R, 1880-1958), were all leaders in women's rights efforts in the United Kingdom. 

 


Women Making History Today
Here's to Looking Forward on This Women's History Month

For this issue of our quarterly Womenabling E-News, falling as it does during Women's History Month, we thought we'd highlight several entrepreneurial women who are making history right now - women who are living by the credo voiced above by early women's suffrage leader Emmeline Pankhurst, women who are leading their own rebellions against the powers that be, and women who are all sure to be spotlighted in Women's History Months to come.

So take a few minutes out of your busy womenabling work day to learn more about these stellar women:


Debbie Sterling, a Stanford-educated engineer, became bothered by a lack of women in STEM. As she says, she became obsessed with the notion of "disrupting the pink aisle" with a toy that would introduce girls to the joy of engineering at a young age. And so, GoldieBlox was born!

GoldieBlox & Rube Goldberg
GoldieBlox & Rube Goldberg "Princess Machine" (2:07)


It is estimated that crowdfunding platforms raised $2.7 billion in financing for entrepreneurial ventures in 2012, an 81% increase over the previous year. Many of the largest and most well-known crowdfunding platforms had female co-founders (read an interesting article about them here), including Indiegogo co-founder Danae Ringelmann, who has been quoted as saying "We will never lose sight of our vision to democratize finance."

Crowdfunding with IndieGoGo - Part I
Crowdfunding with Indiegogo (4:28)


Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, founder of the Afghan Institute of Learning, was recently awarded the  2013 Opus Prize. The prize honors unsung heroes of any faith tradition with a $1 million award for efforts to solve today's most persistent and pressing global issues, including poverty, illiteracy, hunger, disease, and injustice.

Sakena Yacoobi - 2013 Opus Prize winner
Sakena Yacoobi - 2013 Opus Prize winner (3:32)

We applaud these and other rebellious women who are making history today by staying true to their convictions and doing what they know is right. Happy Women's History Month, fellow womenablers.

Sincerely,
Julie R. Weeks
Womenable
  Connect with Womenable

Find us on Facebook  View our profile on LinkedIn  Follow us on Twitter