Tag: feminist entrepreneur

MAPPING FEMINIST ENTERPRISE IN TORONTO

Post author By PK Mutch
Post date August 17, 2017
No Comments on MAPPING FEMINIST ENTERPRISE IN TORONTO

In a city like Toronto where there is no shortage of fun things to do in the evening, it’s hard to imagine anyone would want to spend three hours in a spartan meeting room, volunteering to help two feminist entrepreneurs identify and pin the geolocation of more than 10,000 women-led and majority women–owned enterprises in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

But people did sign up—and they showed up. City of Women founders Mellisa Shaddick and Christine Gresham are working to create the first online, mobile-friendly feminist enterprise city map in Canada. They kicked off the workathon with a short introduction of the project, some instructions and, with bowls of Jujubes for fuel, the volunteers got to work.

Each volunteer chose a neighbourhood they lived in or were familiar with, then checked businesses listed on Business Improvement Association (BIA) sites (there are 21 BIAs in Toronto) to identify potential enterprises, and researched each company to determine which were women-led or majority women–owned. So far, City of Women have verified and mapped more than 95 enterprises. An additional 200 enterprises self-identified and registered through their website, which will then get verified before being added to the map.

Shaddick and Gresham went to university together but didn’t reconnect until a few years ago when Shaddick returned from a seven-year stint in Australia. Their entrepreneurial “click” came after they were frustrated over how difficult it was to find a woman-identified bike mechanic for an event they were holding. Says Shaddick, “There had to be a better way for people to source products and services made by companies run by and owned by women.” Once she read Rebecca Solnit’s October 2016 New Yorker article titled “City of Women”, the solution became obvious to her.

The City of Women Initiative

In that poignant article, Solnit, who has also published several books and urban atlases, calls out the gendered nomenclature of our cities where the vast majority of our streets, subway stations, buildings, and parks are named after prominent men. She writes, “I can’t imagine how I might have conceived of myself and my possibilities if, in my formative years, I had moved through a city where most things were named after women and many or most of the monuments were of powerful, successful, honoured women. “

To address the “manscape,” Solnit created the first “City of Women” map, which alters the existing New York City subway map and makes visible the history and contributions of women who shaped New York by renaming the subway stations after them.

While they loved Solnit’s concept, Shaddick and Gresham decided to take a different approach. Shaddick explains: “The Solnit approach is wonderful and heartwarming and contemporary and impeccable. For us, it is much more of an artistic statement, and we are not artists! We are time-poor feminists who are interested in creating something that we can use in our daily lives—to locate, support, connect and hopefully inspire women-identified, small-business owners.”

Though Shaddick and Gresham are passionate about the idea, they are also realistic about the time it will take to complete the project. “It’s a lot of work, and we can’t do it alone,” says Shaddick.

A Tightly Curated List

Before they add an enterprise on the map with a custom pin and a link to its website, the group verifies that the company meets the criteria of having women-led, majority-women ownership. They usually do this with a phone call. Says Gresham, “So often, we assume an enterprise is owned by a woman because she seems to be the face of the business. But often we find the enterprise is 100% or majority-owned by a male, typically a boyfriend, husband, or sometimes even a father.”

A New Zealand study titled “Critical Yet Invisible: The ‘Good Wife’ in the New Zealand small firm”, authored by Claire Massey at Massey University, found that of the 250 firms surveyed, a surprising number of women played lead roles in small enterprises that were entirely or majority-owned by significant others, leaving the women’s contributions unacknowledged legally or in research about entrepreneurs.

Abigail Slater, a volunteer in Toronto, says that’s exactly why City of Women’s entrepreneurial mapping research is so important. “Not only will it make it easier for enterprises looking to advance women entrepreneurs by genderizing their procurement policy, it also gives visibility to the issue of ownership. Too many women play lead roles in startups or small and medium enterprises and are CEOs, COOs, or co-founders in name only. They have no ownership stake, which means their contributions are both at risk should the relationship dissolve, and their contributions to the entrepreneurial economy goes uncounted.”

Interested in Helping Out?

The next City of Women mapping event is Wednesday, September 23 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Centre for Social Innovation at 215 Spadina Ave. To register, click here.

If you run a feminist enterprise and would like to get pinned, register your business for inclusion on the map by clicking here.

Tags #feministeconomy, city of woman, feminist economy, feminist entrepreneur

Activism & Action Our Voices

Employees at Thinx See Red

Post author By PK Mutch
Post date April 14, 2017
No Comments on Employees at Thinx See Red

What happens when you get an entrepreneur that walks like a “Bro-preneur” but talks like a rad feminist social entrepreneur? Answer: You get Miki Agrawal (photo above), founder of Thinx, a company that makes “period” underwear.

On March 14, Agrawal was outed as a marketplace feminist. Racked (A Vox Media imprint) broke the story first. A week later, Chelsea Leibow, the 26-year-old head of PR at Thinx and now former employee filed a sexual harassment suit. As more employees and allegations came forward over last week, mainstream media sources including Fortune, CNBC, New York Magazine revealed that what showed initially as a bit of immature leadership spotting turned into full-fledged company menorrhagia. And it doesn’t look like any super absorbent cool public relations fixes are going to work this time.

What Happened?

While positioning herself as a millennial “disruptive” feminist entrepreneur selling period underwear to empowerment-hungry women via clever shock-jock public relations tactics, Agrawal at the same time ran a decidedly unfeminist enterprise by paying below market salaries, brutally suppressing grievances, shaming employees and providing for only the legal minimum for maternity leave.

Thinx had 35 employees. As a result of the reveals, she recently announced that she is “stepping down” as CEO.

The press and Twitterverse were quick to weigh in. Some were surprised and appalled. How could a real feminist do that? (Answer: She wasn’t a feminist). Others wondered if Agrawal was too harshly judged arguing “If she were a man…”

But Noreen Malone (writer of the January 2016 New York Magazine cover story on Agrawal over a year ago) saw her true nature. She called it saying Agrawal was really just “… a tech bro — except she’s a woman, trying to sell underwear. Or, as she sees it, innovating in the “period space.” To Agrawal, women’s emancipation, equality, inclusion and dedication to corporate philanthropy (Thinx Foundation) and social benefit stories were just marketing tools.

Agrawal responded passionately to all the allegations in a Medium post on March 17 explaining that her behaviors and mistakes are totally excusable. Apparently, it all goes with being a “true” disruptive innovator, and things like this happen because running a ‘hockey stick” company is hard.

Sorry. Not Buying It. Behavior that disrespects others is about character. High-pressure environments don’t create opportunistic narcissists. It just reveals them.

What can we learn?

From a Liisbeth perspective, while it sucks when we find out someone we thought was real is a mirage, the story is not unique. Agrawal is certainly not the first or last celebrated CEO, either male or female, to be hypocritical when it comes to market message versus true practice (that list is long, gender neutral and goes way back — remember Jimmy Swaggart anyone?).

Agrawal is also not the only inexperienced, yet celebrated CEO in the innovation space which evidently cares more about social media likes than substance. It’s a Trump, Trump world. And let’s not forget. She was not alone. She had investors to please, and a board of directors whose job it is to ensure good governance and preserve arm’s length investor interests. She also listed Seth Godin as one of her advisors early on. Where were they on all this? If they were doing their job, they would have been fully aware of the issues. But as long as the numbers and likes rolled in, they clearly did nothing.

While Agrawal story is nothing new in the innovation space, and yes, women can be assholes too, this story does give rise to some important broader questions about the entrepreneurship and innovation industry.

Agrawal’s story reveals once again how distorted much of the entrepreneurship and innovation space has become in North America. Instead of celebrating authenticity, experience, character and principled execution, its players and the business media extol speed, youth, dorm-room behavior, narcissism and cult personality talent. This story and others like it show it’s time to innovate the innovation space or, at least, what we celebrate about it.

On the upside, perhaps, there is some good that will come of this. In reading the Thinx story, maybe more people will understand what the term marketplace feminism means.

The report also serves as a reminder that media continue to play an important fourth estate role (Racked broke the story). The actions of Thinx employees may well inspire others to speak their truth when faced with unacceptable working conditions and CEO behavior. Investors and boards might consider the importance of walking the talk to avoid the impact of market rage.

And finally, perhaps the trouble at Thinx will drive some business back to the real, unacknowledged but long-time authentic to the bone feminist enterprises in the period industry: Gladrags, Knix Wear, DivaCup and Lunapads.

______________________________________________________________________

Related Readings

https://www.liisbeth.com/2016/10/12/feminist-entrepreneurship-changing-the-face-of-capitalism-one-enterprise-at-a-time/

https://www.liisbeth.com/2017/03/22/enterprise-meet-feminist-business-standard/

Tags feminist entrepreneur, Thinx

Sample Newsletter

LiisBeth Dispatch #27

feminist concept young business woman boxing

VIEWPOINT

Last Saturday night, after two glasses of wine and watching Magic Mike — again, I woke up thinking about positions on top.

No, not that kind. I mean positions on top, as in C-suite. And I wondered why, in an age where C-suite job postings include positions like “CIOTO” (Chief Internet of Things Officer), “CDO” (Chief Design Officer), or CDO (Chief Data Officer), that we have not yet seen a posting for a “CFemO” or Chief Feminist Officer. At least not yet.

Perhaps this idea is still ahead of its time, but to help move it along, here is what such a job posting on Indeed OR Workopolis might look like:

FutureBank Career Opportunity!

Chief Feminist Officer, Office of the CEO — Toronto, ON

Posted: September, 2017

Salary Range: At Minimum: Equal to what other CXO’s with similar experience earn.

What is the Opportunity?

The Office of the CEO drives FutureBank’s brand, sustainability and reputation as a global thought leader and socially responsible organization. Our innovative, forward-thinking team gathers and interprets global economic business, political and social trends, which affect our business, clients and society. By joining our team, you have the opportunity to change the world — and ensure a sustainable future for this company.

Your Role

Reporting to the (most likely male) CEO, you will play a primary role in helping the executive team and our 85,000 employees worldwide advance the UN’s Millenium Development Goal #5, which focuses on accelerating gender equality for women, girls, trans and gender non-conforming people globally.

This will be achieved by:

Working internally and externally to accelerate gender equality in a manner that serves as an example to all.
Identifying and addressing systemic injustices experienced within our organization and throughout our enterprise ecosystem.
Building strong relationships internally and externally with allies.
Leveraging the power of our global reach (80 offices around the world and 30 million customers) to move the needle on gender equity and equality.
Analyzing the distribution of power in our organization and recommending alternatives that ensure diversity is not only seen, but also heard and acted upon.
Bringing typically marginalized talents to bear on addressing our most pressing collective internal and external societal concerns.
Creating an environment where equality, cooperation and absence of sex role behavior are present and visible.

Key Accountabilities

Develop and deliver a 3-5 year transformative plan identifying opportunities for systemic change and articulating strategies for working with our external ecosystem, including feminist organizations, to advance gender equality.
Develop and implement a set of key UN Sustainable Development Goal #5 performance indicators and metrics (scorecard), which can help us monitor progress against our gender equality objectives.
Serve as a spokesperson for our feminist agenda, deliver presentations and facilitate groups to represent the strategy. Take all the heat.
Ensure alignment and integration into other business, HR processes and people strategies.
Manage and lead four direct reports including the Director of Diversity & Inclusion, two Research Analysts and an executive assistant.
Manage within defined budgets (this means tiny budget).

Education and Qualifications

7-10 years as a self-identified active feminist working to create change at a systems level
Background in community organizing.
Deep understanding of social and political gender issues, feminist economics, feminist theory, and feminist leadership and business principles.
Knowledge of HR, business, communications and marketing disciplines.
Working knowledge of UN, global human rights, and women’s rights legislative trends in countries where we operate.
Women’s Studies degree (or equivalent) and MBA, and super powers an asset.
Knitted their own pink pussy hat — and is not afraid to wear it.

Working Conditions

This is a standard office-based environment. The Board of Directors are 90% male, and our C-Suite team of six has at present only one female (Executive Assistant to the CEO). Non-standard hours are a common occurrence. Resources to do the job are scarce. To avoid career repercussions, don’t expect to be home for dinner or plan on taking a mat leave for at least five years. Try not to talk too much or too loud. Limited economy class travel internationally. Participation in the hockey pool or betting on who Canada’s Bachelor will pick is a team-building tradition and is mandatory. We are an equal-opportunity employer. If you require accommodation during the recruitment and selection process, please let us know. We will work with you to meet your needs — at least until you are hired. After that, all bets are off.

Ok, tongue-in-cheek aside, I often wonder when enterprises will get “woke” and begin to leverage feminist knowledge and perspective to advance diversity and inclusion in their organizations.

*** THINX ARTICLE Moved to the website!

FIELDNOTES

LiisBethians Learn About Indigenous Culture During International Women’s Week

A huge shout out to all those who attended the Liisbeth and Woman On The Move co-sponsored workshop on Canadian indigenous culture. We all had a lot to learn from Bear Standing Tall.

A shout out to Elsii Faria and Kevin Craddock, founders of the Hive Centre (a retreat centre in Durham region) who volunteered to video the event.

Is the Cannabis Industry Feminist?

A recent article in Forbes magazine “Women Break the Glass Ceiling in the Cannabis Industry” celebrates the fact that 36% of leaders in the cannabis industry, including 63% of high-level positions are women. Which means this industry is far ahead of the pack.

In June 2016, The Atlantic Monthly also wrote about women as the driving force behind this industry’s growth and make note of one magazine’s cover headline “Legal marijuana could be the first billion-dollar industry not dominated by men.”

Still, some suggest the “Bros” are already knocking at the door. So no time for complacency. Perhaps both the feminist men and women in this space will really create a new model founded on a different set of principles. I see a Green pussy hat, made out of hemp of course, in the near future.

Other Good Reads

Crowdfunding as Activism: Why More Women Support Female Founders Online and in Underrepresented Industries. This is a useful research brief by Institute for Gender & the Economy at the Rotman School Of Management at the University of Toronto.

Liberation Barbell: An Intersectional Feminist Workout Experience is a Bust article about Lucy Davis and Christina Cabrales, two feminist entrepreneurs who started a work out gym in Portland, Oregon. Every Sunday, Liberation Barbell hosts benefit workouts Half the proceeds from these classes will go to good causes. Davis says “If we’re not putting our money where our politics go, what are we doing? We feel passionately that we can use some of our earnings to make political and social change and so when we make it happen, we do it.”

CAN’T MISS EVENTS

March 23: Nasty Women Press Official Launch Party, 8:00PM-11:00PM, Glad Day Bookshop, 499 Church Street, Toronto. Register here.
March 30: The Art and Science of Gratitude, Shecosystem, 701 Bloor Street, 7:30-9:30PM, light snacks and refreshments, Tickets $40/pp or $60 for two. Register here:
March 27: Start Proud, Canada’s first conference for LBGTQ* inclusion in entrepreneurship, MarRS Discovery District, 9:00AM- 8:00PM, 101 College Street, Toronto, Tickets $35. Register here.
March 28: Women & Wearables: An Evening of Celebration, Discussion and Activism. The goal is to raise awareness, drive conversation and elicit action on the need for diversity in tech in the Toronto wearable and hardware space. MaRS Centre, 101 College Street, Toronto ON. TIckets here.
April 4: Budgeting for Equality: Lessons from the UK, Diane Elson, former Chair of the UK Women’s Budget Group. 11:30AM. Rotman School of Management Tickets here.
April 13: Toronto Sustainability Summit, MaRS Centre, 101 College Street, Toronto, Free. Tickets here.
April 26: Catherine Mayer on the Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman: How Gender Equality Can Save the World, 5:00PM-6:00PM, Rotman School of Management. Register here.
April 27-29: Toronto Digifest 2017. Corus Quay, 25 Dockside Drive, Toronto, $350 Register here.
April 27: Liisbeth Spring: Three Feminists Walked Into A Bar…. Limited Capacity. $25 for Liisbeth paying subscribers and $35 for non-subscribers. $40 with book. Includes wine, food and good fun! Register here.
April 28: Beyond Social Enterprise: A Feminist Business Model Design Jam. Centre for Social Innovation at 720 Bathurst, Toronto. Limited space. Paid subscribers to Liisbeth receive a 15% discount off the ticket price! Register here.
September 27-29: Future Festival, Tiff Lightbox, 350 King Street West, Toronto. More information here.

October 3-4: B Corp Conference Comes to Toronto! (More information coming)

Did you find this newsletter informative? Valuable? If you did, please consider to become a paying subscriber so we can keep doing what we do.

Subscription options are $3/month, $7/month and $10/month. We accept PayPal and credit cards. Funds go directly towards paying writers, editors, proofreaders, photo permission fees, and illustrators.

The next newsletter is scheduled for April 17th.

Until then!

Petra Kassun-Mutch
Founding Publisher, LiisBeth

Tags Dispatch, feminist entrepreneur, Women Grow

Activism & Action

Does Your Enterprise Meet The Feminist Business Standard?

Post author By CV Harquail
Post date March 22, 2017
2 Comments on Does Your Enterprise Meet The Feminist Business Standard?

Stocksy, the Vancouver-based stock photography seller, has an unusual approach to growth. It limits the number of artists it represents on its website. The reason: the company wants to make sure there’s enough business for every artist to make a living.

And that’s not the only way Stocksy has embraced a different way of doing business. It also distributes ownership shares to managers, founders, employees and artists, and all members of the company participate in decision-making.

This business represents a new category of activist entrepreneurs who deploy the full scope of their enterprise to drive social change, in Stocksy’s case, through revenue distribution, ownership and decision-making. The company embodies a feminist approach to business, and other social enterprises, interested in achieving their goals, have much to learn from this particular model.

True, social enterprises and feminist businesses have much in common. They both use the tools of commerce — especially products and revenues — to pursue social good. They both seek to address problems – reducing pollution caused by manufacturing, for example, or increasing access to capital in low-cash economies — by innovating and doing business differently. And, both tend to be led by people who want to put their values into practice.

But feminist businesses, like Stocksy, pursue their goals of equity both inside and outside their organizations. They practice the changes they seek day-to-day through their purchasing, product development, marketing, and even accounting; and they pursue social justice at every step so that their companies help transform on every level the social, political and economic systems in which they operate.

Unfortunately, many social enterprises focus only on external change. They imagine that their greatest effectiveness comes from generating revenue to support services, selling products people deeply need, creating opportunities for underserved groups, and so on. While social enterprises seek to help others become self-sufficient, healthier, or more sustainable, they overlook opportunities within their direct control to help their organizations innovate for themselves. That’s how we get enterprises that teach aid recipients to be empowered but don’t allow employees to design their own workflows. Or enterprises that give product away for free but pressure their suppliers for rock-bottom prices that leave suppliers struggling to meet payroll.

Too many social enterprises also pursue change in a gender-blind, race-blind way. They assume that economic empowerment can be achieved without addressing racism, or that sustainability can be implemented without addressing the gender dynamics that determine, for example, who would take on the extra work of recycling. What’s worse is that when social enterprises pursue specific positive social changes without seeking broader, systemic social justice, they actually undermine their own efforts. With one hand they are earnestly trying to fix some problem caused by economic or social structures, while the rest of their processes permit these structures to continue causing damage.

Another Vancouver-based company, Lunapads has built inclusive gender practices into its DNA. The company, which sells natural products to manage menstrual flow and bladder leakage, offers an explicitly trans-inclusive work culture and provides both maternity and paternity leave.

At the same time that Lunapads pursues the specific goal of transforming people’s experiences of their periods through the use of Lunapads’ products, the company pursues a larger social justice mission: to help all people have healthier relationships with their bodies. Lunapads not only addresses gender injustice, by reinforcing trans-inclusion in its marketing copy, but also uses its products and marketing messages to promote body confidence, candor and positivity. All of this is directed towards a social justice goal of ending gendered social shame around menstruation, postpartum needs, and incontinence.

Feminist businesses know that any company that isn’t consciously pursuing social justice is reinforcing a damaging system. There is no neutral. Even the most well-meaning social enterprises may fail to pursue social justice even as they try to promote specific social good. For example, we see companies provide warm coats to the homeless but fail to pay a living wage to the women who clean the company’s conference rooms. Or social enterprises that reduce waste by recycling plastic, but waste talent by not promoting women, and men of colour, into their top management teams. Or online marketplaces that help indigenous craftspeople find customers but hoard for their shareholders the additional revenue generated by advertisers on the site.

Social entrepreneurs can follow the example of feminist businesses and make social justice part of their overarching purpose. Working with tools like the Feminist Business Model Canvas (FBMC), social entrepreneurs can systematically ask themselves whether and how each element of their business might be redesigned to improve the relationships between different social groups participating in their networks. And instead of focusing only on their output — their products and services — as opportunities to drive change, they can harness the enormous power for change potentially available inside their very organizations.

If 2016’s political events (Trump, Brexit) taught us anything, it is that despite all the efforts to advance social justice and the incredible investments in social enterprises, social entrepreneurship, social innovation, and corporate social responsibility programming world-wide, since the introduction of then radical ‘hybrid” enterprise legal form (Community Interest Company in the UK in 2005), growth of the Skoll Forum for social enterprise, plus countless books, social enterprise incubators, and media showers, the needle did not move nearly far or fast enough for most.

We need new tools in the tool kit. And from where we sit, the next radical move for those who wish to use the power of business to catalyze social change is to embrace feminism, feminist business practice and feminist leadership principles.

CV Harquail, PhD, co-founder of FeministsAtWork, teaches entrepreneurship at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. She is a facilitator at the April 28 workshop, “Beyond Social Enterprise: Feminist Business Model Design Jam.” Read more from CV Harquail here.

Publisher’s Note: The Centre for Social Innovation, in partnership with feminist business publisher Liisbeth, is sponsoring a full-day workshop April 28 in Toronto that will demonstrate how all enterprises with social goals can benefit from the feminist business model and by using tools such as the Feminist Business Model Canvas (FBMC). You’re invited to experiment with these strategies, and learn how to build social change into every business node and every relationship in your value networks — including and especially inside your own organization. The sessions take place, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Center for Social Innovation Annex, 720 Bathurst St., Toronto, ON. To register, go to Eventbrite.com (put in link). Tickets: $95 Early Bird. $150, General. You can register or learn more here. Questions, email [email protected] .

Tags feminist business, feminist entrepreneur, Social Enterprise

Sample Newsletter

LiisBeth Dispatch #26

VIEWPOINT

When I asked LiisBeth contributor Anne-Marie Hood about what inspired the art she created for this week’s newsletter cover (above), she replied “Unlike paint, the materials and method used to create this work (cardboard, paper, yarn, felt and foam), like our gains as women, are not designed to stand the test of time. Our ideas and ideals are as organic as any growing form. Without nourishment, even the strongest roots can collapse. The much longed for light in the darkness may be revealed for what it is: a mirrored reflection off an intact glass ceiling.”

During Prime Minister Trudeau’s first meeting with President Trump at the White House on Feb. 13 a new cross border initiative to advance women entrepreneurs was announced. As I followed the news about it, I could not help but think about Hood’s words and how they applied to this new women’s initiative.

A Spark of Light in the Darkness?

Initially, I was energized to hear that women entrepreneurs would be on the Prime Minister and President’s agenda for their first meeting. Could this be a seed for change that stands the test of time or would it be just another women’s policy tumbleweed? Soon after, and as more information came to light, the pleasant adrenal high subsided. Too many red flags.

What’s in a Name?

One of the first things you learn in business is to get the name right. It’s a sign of respect. So what does it tell us when people keep messing up the stakeholders in the name of the newly appointed council?

The official White House press release issued on Feb. 13 referred to it as the “Canada-United States Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs”. On the same day, in the official joint statement issued by the Canadian government it was named the the “Canada-United States Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders.” Then on Feb. 14, Canadian Business magazine along with several other news outlets (Macleans, CBC, Associated Press, Fortune magazine and Fox News) announced it as the “United States Canada Council for the Advancement of Women Business Leaders-Female Entrepreneurs.”

It seems like no one really cared if the council was created to advance women entrepreneurs, women in the workplace, business leaders, or all three, as long as it said women somewhere in the title. Not taking the time to carefully consider the named stakeholders for this initiative indicates that it was likely hastily and/or not well crafted and validates the view that this council was created to achieve pop up political goals. And given little has been announced since, it is starting to look more and more like a tumbleweed indeed.

What Does the Roster Tell Us?

Diversity pundits argue that to best serve the market, one must employ the market. This is because socially diverse groups are more innovative than homogeneous groups, especially when it comes to solving complex problems. But ensuring optimal diversity on several levels when appointing the members of this council was evidently not a priority. For instance, there is only one person of colour on the council.

Furthermore, based on the internet bios available, it appears that none of the people designated to the Canadian seats (five out of ten) have ever been entrepreneurs. On the U.S. side, only two out of the five have founded or co-founded a company: Ivanka Trump and Canadian Annette Verschuren (we are not sure why a Canadian was listed as a member on the U.S. side) even if both did so under profoundly privileged circumstances.

Also, all council members represent companies that are already exporting or importing from the U.S.

The makeup of the council indicates that the selection process prioritized large, well-established corporations with cross-border business interest or perhaps just familiar faces. It also shows that the government officials who organized this initiative see women entrepreneurs and corporate careerists as interchangeable constituencies with indistinguishable concerns. The thing is, they are not the same at all.

Women entrepreneurs and employed women experience the economy and work life very differently. For example, one takes personal financial risk and founds companies, the other works for companies. The former cares deeply about things like equitable access to venture capital, and the impact of small business tax rate hikes; the latter cares more about women’s representation on corporate boards and prospects for women’s career advancement. And while both may share experiences and concerns about sexism and gender-based discrimination, they have entirely different concerns and ergo priorities when it comes to directing policy.

Surely our talented MP Chrystia Freeland and Trudeau’s Chief of Staff Katie Telford could have found at least one smart, Canadian woman founder/entrepreneur who typifies the entrepreneurship experience to join the council, even on short notice.

Forest of Collapsed Roots?

No one yet knows what this council will do, or even can do. Some reports say its creation was simply based on political opportunism and its only impact will be symbolic in nature. In other words, it will amount to nothing more than a well-planned dodge. Other media outlets referred to it as a task force.

Whatever this council ends up doing, I, along with Arlene Dickenson, sincerely hope the latter is not going to be the case. We don’t need another task force on this subject in Canada. We have had plenty. Consider the 2003 Prime Minister’s Task Force on Women Entrepreneurs, the Task Force for Women’s Business Growth report published in 2011, the Expert Panel on Championing and Mentorship for Women Entrepreneurs in 2014, or more recently, the Women Entrepreneur Ontario Collective report published November 2016, just to name a few.

Of them all, the 2011 report is the most recent, comprehensive, large-scale collaborative effort led by a national and non-partisan consortium of prominent women business owners, service agencies, academics, and industry associations. Yet, as of 2017, 2011 Task Force Chair Barbara Orser reports that few of the recommendations, which not surprisingly are similar to recommendations of prior task forces, have been implemented.

And as Canada continues to delay implementing policies and supports that could be of tremendous value to women entrepreneurs and our economy, we also find ourselves falling behind globally. In a new book, The Routledge Companion to Global Female Entrepreneurship, to be published in April 2017, chapter contributor Barbara Orser cites compelling research that shows “while Canada is among leading nations with respect to gender equality as it pertains to employed females, this is not the case for policies to support women entrepreneurs.” In other words, in Canada, we do more for addressing equality issues for employed women that we do for women entrepreneurs.

Orser also argues in the book that one of the reasons for government indifference to the specific needs of Canadian women entrepreneurs is the lack of advocacy, an issue which was identified in 2003, and every task force since.

Nourishing New Seeds

The questions raised by the creation of this council tell us that, like the other initiatives that came before it in which recommendations were not acted upon, perhaps we are just hurtling towards a light that is really just a mirrored reflection of Hood’s ever “intact glass ceiling”. In other words, initiatives like these, including ones far more seriously contemplated, will likely continue to fail because they are set down in a society that has still not yet truly grappled with its deeply rooted cultural and social gender biases.

Nevertheless, on the positive side, the creation of the council is at least something, even if only a small seed tossed onto stoney ground.

And there is a way that we, LiisBethians, can help nourish this seed and increase the likelihood that this initiative can produce positive, lasting outcomes for women entrepreneurs.

Let’s take out our pens and write MP Chrystia Freeland,([email protected]) plus the five Canadian members of the council to ask for their commitment to help implement the recommendations of prior task forces within the next few years. Their contact information can be found here.

But we better do it fast, because who knows if this Council will last for real beyond the day that it met.

THIS WEEK ON LIISBETH

If you missed our presentation and panel at the Feminist Art Conference held on Saturday, Jan. 21, have no fear, a podcast of the entire presentation is now here!

In this 80-minute session, the panelists explored the intersections between gender, entrepreneurship and innovation and how gender shapes entrepreneurial choices, support, access to capital, and the overall experience.

The panelists included Renish Kamal, founder, Fidget Toys, Priya Ramanujam, founder, Urbanology Magazine, Emily Rose Antflick, founder and chief community cultivator, Shecosystem , Allison Hillier, serial entrepreneur and instructional designer, and Valerie Fox, founder, The Pivotal Point .

Great listening for your next run or walk! To hear the podcast now, click here. To download the podcast from our website click here.

FIELD NOTES

R.I.P Julie Rae Weeks: Last week, a leading advocate for women’s rights and entrepreneurship around the world, Julie R. Weeks died on Feb.18, 2017 at the age of 59 as the result of brain cancer. Julie served as Director of Research at the Center for Women’s Business Research in the U.S., Executive Director of the National Women’s Business Council, which advises the U.S. Congress, and Small Business Advisor for the President of the United States. As President and CEO of Womenable, Julie’s national and international activism led her to board positions with: The Association of Women’s Business Centers, for which she served as chair; Enterprising Women Magazine; Global Banking Alliance for Women; International Council for Small Business; International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship; the National Association of Women Business Owners; and WEConnect International. She also served as a Strategic Advisor to Quantum Leaps.

Barbara Orser, a colleague and sometime co-author with Julie says “Julie Weeks was a visionary and connector. She was a thought leader who taught us that all nations must do more to support women’s social and economic rights. Womenable has played a critical role in connecting the global community of researchers, practitioners and policymakers. Her legacy is evidenced in many of the organizations that have made the U.S. a leader in supporting women entrepreneurship. She will be very, very missed.”

For information about her funeral, including webcam access view http://www.reynolds-jonkhoff.com/obituaries/Julie-Weeks/#!/Obituary

This week, SheEO announced its first group of U.S. venture investees! They include ABL Denim, Callisto, Embrace Innovations, Kitables, and The Town Kitchen. For detailed information, visit SheEO.

The 2017 slate of Canadian SheEOs will be announced at the SheEO gala in Toronto, Monday, March 6.

WEConnect Canada has a new Country Director! Chelsea Prescod, former director with Pepper & Lemon, a digital creative strategy enterprise took on her new role in January.

Astrid Pregel, the former head of WEConnect, has moved on to a position with WEConnect International. The corporate-led non-profit, facilitates inclusive and sustainable economic growth by empowering and connecting women business owners globally. It identifies, educates, registers, and certifies women’s business enterprises that are at least 51 per cent owned, managed, and controlled by one or more women.

This week LiisBeth spoke with Yudit Timbo of One Spark, an organization based in Hamilton that provides barrier-free opportunities for women experiencing violence to generate income through entrepreneurship. To find out more visit their website here.

Recommended Reading for Feminist Entrepreneur Policy Geeks

If you are interested in how different feminist outlooks position women in the economy, and how they in turn influence policy making for women’s entrepreneurship in Scandinavian countries, the paper titled “In the name of women? Feminist readings of policies for women’s entrepreneurship in Scandinavia” will be of significant interest.

The paper discusses the presence or absence of feminist theory in research on women’s entrepreneurship, includes definitions of feminist approaches to entrepreneurship and compares women’s entrepreneurship policies in Scandinavia. Not surprisingly, the paper points out that most policies give precedence to neoliberal-style economic growth objectives, and tend to position women as in need of “fixing” and a means to this end. It begs the question, what would entrepreneurship look like for women if guided by alternative feminist outlooks? A shout-out to Barbara Orser for alerting us to it. You can find it here.

In addition, Statistics Canada released a report in November 2016 titled “A Comparison of the Performance of Majority Female-Owned and Majority Male-Owned Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises“. The study examined the impact of gender on enterprise performance for the years 2011 and 2014 on a handful of variables. The key finding? In 2014, women are just as innovative as males. Halleluja! Also, the study says banks today are treating women entrepreneurs looking for debt financing more equally than they did in 2011. This is progress?

What the study doesn’t look at is what percentage of total venture debt financing overall goes to majority-owned women firms in Canada. In her recent presentation in December in Ottawa, Dr. Candida Brush reported that in the U.S., only 4.4 per cent of the total dollars lent to small businesses went to women-led firms. In 2007, Statistics Canada found that “Majority female-owned firms were just as likely to seek to finance as majority male-owned firms in 2007 but were less likely to be approved for debt financing than majority male-owned firms.” So while women might no longer be paying more to fund their ventures than men, the study does not note what % of all lending goes to women.

As is the case with comparing statistics, the devil is in the methodology.

CAN’T MISS EVENTS

March 2: She Started It: A Film Screening, JLABS in Toronto, 5 to 8 p.m. “She Started It” is a new documentary film that follows five trailblazing young female entrepreneurs through their journeys of entrepreneurship. To register, click here.
March 2: AGO’s March First Thursday theme: Still Nasty. The future is Feminist (LiisBeth agrees!) This March, the AGO partners with OCAD University to present a special edition of First Thursday guest curated by OCAD’s graduate class in Criticism and Curatorial Practice. The night’s program aims to explore, through a feminist lens, a future that imagines possibilities for diversity of representation and experiences—a future that is more open, more free, more feminist, and non-deterministicAdvance Tickets: $13 Non-Members / $11 AGO Members*At the Door: $16 Non-Members / $14 AGO Members.7 – 11:30 pm 19+ (ID required) / Cash Bar
March 7: No Safe Space: Harassment of Women in Media by the Canadian Journalism Foundation, Tuesday, March 7, 2017 from 6 to 8:30 p.m., TMZ Broadcast Centre, Toronto. It is not just Internet trolls. These days, it is often not safe for women to speak up anywhere — online, on air and in print. What can be done about the barrage of intimidation, threats, and abusive comments that seem determined to silence our voices? In the lead up to International Women’s Day, we tackle online harassment against women in media. Register here.
March 8: It’s International Women’s Day! Check out events in your city!
March 9: Indigenous awareness training seminar hosted by LiisBeth and Women on the Move in partnership with Bear Standing Tall and Associates, and Juno award-winner Brenda MacIntyre, 2111 Dundas Street West, Toronto, 5 to 8:30 p.m. The three-and-a-half-hour holistic seminar using the medicine wheel framework covers topics including the Truth and Reconciliation process; treaty relationships 101; and challenges created by Canada’s Indian Act and how it affects indigenous women; plus the status and challenges faced by indigenous women entrepreneurs (51 per cent of indigenous women either wholly or partly own a business in Canada versus 47 per cent of non-indigenous women). $35 ($25 for LiisBeth member subscribers). To register, click here.
March 11-12: Indigenous Women’s Entrepreneurship BootCamp – The Aboriginal Women’s Business Entrepreneurship Network (AWBEN) and Pow Wow Pitch, led by Sunshine Tenasco is hosting two days of entrepreneurial coaching in Ottawa on Saturday, March 11 and Sunday, March 12. The program’s goals are to provide a safe, supportive, collaborative, empowering and culturally supportive environment that addresses the unique challenges of female Aboriginal entrepreneurs and aspiring female Aboriginal entrepreneurs, and to promote community leadership as a reflection of respect and reciprocity. The program is accepting 20 indigenous entrepreneurial women and registration is free. You can register here.
March 16: Roxanne Gay, author, introduces her new book Feminism & Difficult Women, Toronto Public Library, 7 to 8:30 p.m. To register, click here.
April 28: HOLD THE DATE! LiisBeth will soon be releasing details about the long awaited Feminist Business Model Canvas Workshop to be held in Toronto at the Centre for Social Innovation at 720 Bathurst. Limited space.

That’s it for this week! And if you are not already doing so, please consider increasing your support of what we do in the form of a paid subscription. Subscription options are $3/month, $7/month and $10/month. We accept PayPal and credit cards. Funds go directly towards paying writers, editors, proofreaders, photo permissions and illustrators.

Our goal is to get to 1,000 email subscribers by March 31!! So please share this newsletter to those you know who might be interested.

The next newsletter is scheduled for March 14.

See you in two weeks!

Be fearless,

Tags Council for Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders, feminist entrepreneur, LiisBeth Newsletter

Our Voices

Special Gender, Innovation & Entrepreneurship Podcast Feature

Post author By PK Mutch
Post date March 2, 2017
No Comments on Special Gender, Innovation & Entrepreneurship Podcast Feature

LiisBeth and the Feminist Art Conference (FAC) collaborated to curate a special panel session on women’s entrepreneurship. The theme for this year’s Feminist Art Conference was “embodied resistance,” a highly appropriate theme given the conference date coincided with the Women’s March on January 21, 2017, when millions of women and allies around the world truly embodied resistance to growing misogyny, racism, and sexism following the election of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The central idea of FAC’s theme was that the form of the body is a canvas on which to create, explore or express resistance. In concert with the curatorial statement, the artists who presented works at the conference tried to “reshape our assumptions about gender roles through the type of work they take on, by exploring themes like weight, menstruation, trauma, and self care. They explored how the body can be a medium through which to explore, reshape norms, indicate resistance to norms or the dominant culture, and ultimately help us reinterpret our world, ourselves, and identify a path that leads to desirable social change.”

For women, trans ,and gender non-binary people, entrepreneurship is also a kind of resistance. And in this panel discussion, we look at the intersections between gender, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

LiisBeth contributor Cynthia MacDonald wrote, “Writer Natalie Clifford Barney once called entrepreneurship ‘the last refuge of the troublemaking individual,'” adding that “for many women, particularly those working within oppressive environments, the very act of starting a business can be frighteningly disruptive to the social order.”

In this 80-minute session, the panelists explored the intersections between gender, entrepreneurship, and innovation, and how gender shapes entrepreneurial choices, support, access to capital, and the overall experience. Their stories highlight how women entrepreneurs still face numerous barriers.

The panelists included Renish Kamal, founder of Fidget Toys, Priya Ramanujam, founder of Urbanology Magazine, Emily Rose Antflick, founder and chief community cultivator at Shecosystem, Allison Hillier, serial entrepreneur and instructional designer, and Valerie Fox, founder of The Pivotal Point.

We think you will enjoy their stories of resistance. To listen while connected to the web, click here. To download the podcast, click here.

Tags Feminist Art Conference, feminist entrepreneur

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