First, acknowledge that Canada’s one-million-plus female entrepreneurs are not mini-men. Then, make new federal funding available only to women-led incubators and accelerators
In September, Mary Ng, the minister of small business and export promotion, announced a new $85-million fund to support women’s entrepreneurship programming.
That comes a year after a 2017 McKinsey consulting firm study on gender parity in Canada said it will take 180 years before women entrepreneurs and business owners will achieve gender parity in this country. While Canada is viewed as a leading nation in advancing gender equality, support for its one-million-plus female entrepreneurs clearly lags far behind.
As a female serial entrepreneur, I welcomed Ms. Ng’s announcement, but it’s not enough to pinkify startup and innovation funding. Wiping lipstick across current entrepreneurial programs will not reduce the challenges women face. We must first fundamentally change the entrepreneurial ecosystem – how it views women and what we encourage in these programs. In short, we must grasp that women who start businesses are not mini-men and alterations to the one-suit-fits-all approach to gender works to oppress, rather than unleash new economic potential.
Currently, the majority of incubator and accelerator environments that receive government funding to attract women act more like “re-education centres.” The programs aim to change female entrepreneurs so we behave more like men, herding us to leap into flashy tech sectors, embrace masculine approaches to starting and quickly scaling a business, and even abandon the very motivations that inspired us to start a business in the first place.
For many women, starting a business may be less about status, destruction and gaming the system than creating meaning and advancing justice.
Too often pink marketing tactics that attract female founders into accelerator programs fail on the retention side: After a few months of segregation and patronizing coaching, they run screaming out the door. Many segregated programs close down – not because women-only spaces are not needed, but because a segregated approach in a co-ed environment doesn’t work.
While I agree all-women spaces are truly important in many circumstances, due to the silencing and intimidation many women experience while in the presence of men (even those they love), lace-glove ghettoization in otherwise co-ed settings is the last thing women entrepreneurs need. These programs rarely succeed; women perceive these watered-down and otherwise undifferentiated programs as being sideline; they are for those who can’t cut it in the main ring.
For these reasons, I am challenging Ms. Ng to do something bold with this new funding: Use it to change the narrative on female entrepreneurship. Direct these dollars to supporting and validating women’s authentic approach to entrepreneurship rather than trying to make us more like men or steering us away from work we’re passionate about.
For example, the vast majority of female entrepreneurs today are drawn to start businesses in human-centred sectors such as care-giving, culture-making, education, health and wellness, hosting/tourism, food, community building and what we might call human development – belonging, spirituality, capacity-building and meaning-making.
Currently, these areas are perceived as mature, low growth, unremarkable, expensive to scale, and not export friendly. They have poor prospects of generating high wages, fat exit packages or monetary wealth for investors. As a result, investors and innovation policy makers deem these sectors to be an economic still pond. They look away, dazzled by rowdy tech startups with hockey stick growth curves. But if you are only looking for the fireworks, you miss the amazing things that are happening on the ground.
As the next wave of the artificial intelligence tech sector explodes – replacing human labour and creating social upheaval – that so-called still pond will look awfully deep. Human-centred businesses will become more vital than ever, with high-growth prospects and enviable process innovations that garner intellectual property value exportable to nations mired in worsening social decay.
If future value streams lie in funding companies that excel at work only humans can do, now is the time to support and drive entrepreneurship and innovation in these areas which, at present, tend to be women-led.
To unleash women’s potential as entrepreneurs, we also need to support process innovation (not just product innovation) and fund the growing number of alternative, experimental, community-based women-for-women programs and create opportunities to connect them so they might grow from strength to strength plus share points of view and best practices.
Such incubators should be generously sprinkled across the land to ensure local relevance and easy access and sparkle with colours – green, yellow, purple and raspberry, rather than corporate grey.
When it comes to programming, instead of typical engineer dude-developed curriculums, fund applicants who could deliver innovative curriculums based on newer and more relevant ideas developed by under-leveraged female thought leaders such as Adrienne Maree Brown (Emergent Strategy), Saras Sarasvathy (Effectual Entrepreneurship), Barbara Orser and Catherine Elliott (Feminine Capital) and CV Harquail plus Lex Schroeder (co-creators of the Feminist Business Model Canvas).
And, finally, this time let’s make the funds available only to women-led incubators and accelerators with a leadership team and mentor rosters composed of a minimum of 51 per cent women. Rather than trying to change women, they are more likely to work on overhauling inequitable political, economic, social and power structures in order to help women-led enterprises thrive. Systems changes can deliver huge benefits. For instance, working to get more women on boards is important in advancing women in the economy, but what about securing basic maternity leave benefits for women who own more than 49 per cent of their own incorporated businesses?
Female entrepreneurs are not mini-men clamouring for increased access to expensive, personally secured debt and willing to outsource care-giving of their loved ones in order to work 100-plus hours a week. The majority of us pursued entrepreneurship to escape a system that was not built to include us. It should be no surprise when we are not eager to give up hard-won control of our businesses, time and values by getting back into the patriarchal maelstrom, selling equity in order to drive up Canada’s GDP.
What we really want is access to diverse opportunities – to develop the opportunities we see, want to invest in, and pursue in our own way. It’s time we start looking at what we value economically, and how to create equity for and advance female entrepreneurs as they are, not what a system, arguably a broken system, wants them to be.
This article was originally published in The Globe and Mail, Canada’s National Newspaper on October 16th, 2018
More women are turning to entrepreneurship than ever before– Can we really afford to keep missing the mark when it comes to developing the infrastructure needed to amplify their potential?
Close up studio shot of plastic small T-Rex holding paper bags with greenery isolated on yellow.
VIEWPOINT
Mountains of private sector led studies and a handful of task forces over the past ten years on how to unleash the power of women entrepreneurs…and we are no further ahead. In fact, the 2017 McKinsey study on gender parity in Canada identified that Canada had “extremely high inequality in five out of fiftteen indicators.” One of those was women’s entrepreneurship. According to the study, it will take us 180 years to reach parity in terms of creating an environment where women entrepreneurs can thrive as well—or as easily—as their male counterparts.
One of the reasons for this disappointing rate of progress, in my opinion, is the fact that we have allowed a handful of powerful, privileged people, girl-boss celebrities and Bro’ tech voices to have an outsized impact on how we view women’s entrepreneurship. The learning here is: women entrepreneurs are not mini-men entrepreneurs. A woman’s lived experience in a kyriarchal world is entirely different than a man’s and thus, not surprisingly, so is their approach to venture design and growth. Instead of developing programs and policies designed to homogenize and encourage women entrepreneurs to learn how to proceed like unencumbered, entitled tech-dudes, it’s time to recognize, celebrate, and amplify our uniqueness.
And here’s the good news. This might finally happen.
This summer, the Canadian government launched a competitive bid process to establish an independent Womens Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub fuelled by a hefty $8.62 million dollar budget over three years. The application must be be consortium based and led by an academic institution. The goal? Take off the Tom Ford aviators and see things as they really are.
Grant opportunities like this don’t happen often so it’s no surprise that the competition is fierce. The assessment criteria includes points for things like research credentials, large project management skills, plans for long term financial sustainability, and the ability to leverage technology. Applicants must also demonstrate some level of prior engagement and knowledge of women’s entrepreneurship in Canada, the ecosystem that supports women entrepreneurs, plus experience working with diverse, intersectional groups of women.
All useful criteria on which to base a decision.
But…let’s face it. If we truly want to see different results from the past, it’s the leadership style of the lead applicant team that matters most.
When it comes to awarding big government contracts, we tend to go for thigh thundering T-Rex’s bearing gifts. The bigger and louder the better. We think someone famous, aggressive, with corporate connections who is chummy with the 1% will help get things done.
But if we want a different result, we need a different approach. Like Dandelion leadership.
In feminist and activist literature, the natural characteristics of the lowly dandelion is often referred to as a metaphor for the type leadership needed to advance social equity in any space, including entrepreneurship. Dandelion leaders recognize that innovation and leadership can come from anywhere, not just the tip of the economic iceberg. Dandelions are democratic, humble, agile, and responsive to their environment. They don’t care where they grow. They are everywhere. Farmer’s fields, a gated community lawn, or between cracks in sidewalks. They deeply understand the concept of inter-independence because without it, they die. They help nourish and ripen challenging ideas. They detoxify. They encourage others around them to flourish as opposed to expanding their own empires. And at the same time, they are not afraid of revolution. Imagine a field overrun with dandelions!
Imagine an economy fuelled by feminism.
Canada has lagged in its ability to productively support women entrepreneurs because this diverse and heterogenous community is still greatly misunderstood and misrepresented. Moving forward, one way to avoid this is to ensure research and collaborations engage grass roots organizations, feminist leaders, and the kaleidoscope of main street female entrepreneurs in purposeful ways. No more tokenism.
This will take a leadership team that knows about creating safe environments. People who can harvest and include learnings from the fringe. An open minded team who is understands collective impact theory. Someone willing to challenge the current dysfunctional sacred cows of entrepreneurship and innovation—perhaps throwing them out all together.
The decision regarding who gets to lead the hub will be announced in October. I can’t wait.
And I, for one, will be rooting for the dandelion team who is able to take root in depleted spaces and encourage generative growth.
LiisBeth Founder & Publisher
THIS WEEK ON LIISBETH
What We Are Talking About When We Talk About White Privilege: Themes From the White Privilege Conference in Toronto
What happens when you think of white privilege? Maybe it makes you angry. Perhaps it’s a subject you avoid. Possibly you become itchy and uncomfortable because if you are white (and privileged) you feel like you are to blame. If you are a member of a minority facing struggles because of race, how do you get someone to understand your barriers, challenges, and point of view?
White Privilege Conference has become synonymous with tackling widespread issues of inequality and 2018 marked the first time WPC has crossed the border for a Canadian version of the conference.
Dr. Golnaz Golnaraghi’s story is a moving and inspiring account of her time at the White Privilege Conference, and includes practical ways we can move towards solutions and change. Read it here.
The four Atlanta social ventures awarded a total of $200,000 by the Sara Blakely Foundation and Atlanta Emerging Markets, Inc. (AEMI) through the Civic Impact Loan Fund.
Change Makers: A unique residency supports women entrepreneurs on the front line of social innovation
Welcome to Atlanta, the city with the highest rate of income inequality in the US. Now, thanks to the vision of Rohit Malhotra who worked on civic innovation initiatives in the Obama administration and Sara Blakely, Atlanta’s most influential female entrepreneur and Spanx CEO and founder, The Centre for Civic Innovation is fostering startups who are addressing the root cause of why this inequality exists. From yoga practice for police officers to Civic Dinners bringing community members together, the centre provides financial and development support to entrepreneurs.
Adina Solomon explains how the one-year residency is measured by how much the entrepreneurs achieve – not by financial indicators. Check out the article here.
Above: Lido Pimienta, Venus Fest 2017
New LiisBeth Playlist! Time to Soar
September is here. Time to get back to initiatives, routines, and commitments sometimes left to languish as we frenetically try to enjoy our short summers.
To get back into the swing of things, Aerin Fogel, founder of Venus Fest, created a new playlist for LiisBeth to help get us back into gear! Have a listen here.
The playlist features ten artists performing at this year’s Venus Fest, a Toronto music festival and concert series celebrating feminism in the arts. It happens Thursday to Saturday, September 22-24th at various locations!
FEMINIST FREEBIE! VENUS FEST PASS GIVEAWAY! LiisBeth has two festival passes to give away to the first two LiisBethians to complete our reader survey today on September 11th! Recipients will be announced on Twitter (and notified by email).
All LiisBeth subscribers are also invited to the Venusfest Pre-Party Show and Panel which happens at the Drake Underground on Saturday, September 15th. Tickets are $12 in advance.
Feminist campers
WTF is Feminist Camp?
You can find a camp for anything: music, archery, cooking…and now, there is Feminist Camp, a front-row seat to feminist work, activism, and action beyond classroom theories. Feminist Camp is the brainchild of two women on a mission to show (mostly) college-aged women what their futures might look like. Campers meet professionals like judges, police officers, and artists who practice feminism in their jobs.
No bonfires or marshmallows, but an impromptu sing-a-long could very well erupt on the streets of New York City, Seattle, or Zambia, along with a renewed sense of direction, confidence, and possibilities. Catherine Drillis shares her thoughts from Feminist Camp’s HQ, located at Ms. Foundation in NYC. Read the piece here.
LIISBETH FIELD NOTES
The RAISE Collective
The weRAISE 2018 program featured seven women-led ventures seeking capital for growth from industries including technology and consumer goods. The #womenRAISE campaign took place over 100 days with the cohort collectively raised $1M.
“Entrepreneurs benefitted from the connections they made and to having access to the right types of capital for their specific needs.” – Jill Earthy, RAISE Founder
weRAISE is now collaborating with Female Funders, a program for women interested in investing and who are unlocking capital to support female entrepreneurs. To learn about the need to increase gender diversity within Canada’s investment ecosystem, check out the Women in Venture report.
The next weRAISE cohort launches in early 2019. Companies who want to learn more can visit www.theraisecollective.com
Thrive Podcast for Women Entrepreneurs
Brew yourself a cup and have a listen to this 30 minute podcast from Start Up Canada. Janice MacDonald chats with Petra Kassun-Mutch about everything from B-corp info, responsibilities of an entrepreneur, and the five values of the feminist business model canvas. Do you know what they are?
Pramilla Ramdahani, Founder of the Community Innovation Lab
NO WAY! A FINANCE CONFERENCE JUST FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS!
Pramilla Ramhahani (pictured above), founder and CEO of Durham region’s Community Innovation Lab saw the economic and personal transformation potential of women entrepreneurs. So she created the Refinery, a women’s entrepreneurship program that will provide technical advisory support, workshops, bootcamps, year-long intensive coaching, and co-working hub space to an estimated 1,435+ female entrepreneurs over the next three years.
The Community Innovation Lab (CiLab), is a not for profit organization currently led by an all-female staff.
On September 12th, CiLab is holding the first women-centric finance conference of its kind in the region where they will announce a significant partnership with the Business Development Corporation to advance startups and women entrepreneurs across Ontario.
If you are looking for women-led financing opportunities, don’t miss this conference! It will be worth the drive to Durham.
But how do you really feel? What do you really think?
LiisBeth has grown to over 1850 newsletter subscribers. And we thought it might be time for us all to get to know ourselves better as a community. So we created the “un-reader” survey in that nu-uh, we aren’t going to ask you about what kinds of articles you like or advertiser-centric demographic questions. We don’t even advertise!
WE WANT TO KNOW: what you’re thinking about, what you care about, your views on feminism, and your take on how LiisBeth can improve.
This survey takes about 12minutes.We also understand your time is super valuable. So in return for your generosity, we will be publishing a copy of our survey results on LiisBeth so that you too, can get to know this community better!
Vivek Shraya’s poetry collection, even this page is white, is a bold and personal interrogation of skin–its origins, functions, and limitations. Shraya paints the face of everyday racism with words, rendering it visible, tangible, and undeniable. (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2016) “A provocative meditation on what it means to grow up anything other than white in Canada, tackling institutional racism and sexual identity from a unique viewpoint, all delivered with astute observation and trenchant insight.” — Rollie Pemberton, former Edmonton Poet Laureate
Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times by Nick Montgomery and Carla Bergman is not what you might expect given the title. While this hard core left of centre book clearly advocates for change through activism, it has a unique perspective on this type of work and issues experienced by those working in the thick of it. If you have been growing tired of resisting Trump, Ford, and other various forms of oppression, injustice or new policies that create more barriers rather than remove them, this book serves as a bit of a pick me up.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Healing Solidarity Online Conference Eunice Baguna Ball, Founder of ATBN (African Technology Business Netowork) will be speaking at Healing Solidartiy’s week-long conference about reimagining international development. Get your free ticket here.
YMCA LaunchWomen’s Empowerment Exchange Traded Fund — Impact Shares and YWCA US now offer an exchange traded fund (ETF) on the New York Stock Exchange enabling investors to invest in companies whose practices are aligned with gender-equality standards. Now that’s pretty cool. Will Canada’s YWCA be next?
Size doesn’t matter! Supporting membership to the Women’s Enterprise Organizations of Canada (WEOC) is free and open to any organization that supports its objectives. To join, find out more here.
As the hype winds down from the federal government’s August 31st release of the Social Innovation and Social Finance Strategy (sisfs.ca) Co-creation steering group’s recommendations, you can still make some noise! Email your MP or tweet about it using #sisfs #innovate4impact
Read the full report here
That brings us to the end of our September newsletter. The next website refresh and newsletter is scheduled for October 15th, 2018. Did you read something of value in this newsletter?
LiisBeth is the only media voice in the world which supports the work of feminist entrepreneurs and innovators. We are 100% reader supported. If you love what we do, become a subscriber to LiisBeth! We humbly remind you that subscriptions are $3/month, $7/month or $10/month.
We are now also on Patreon! You can choose to donate to us there!
Funds go directly towards paying writers, editors, proofreaders, photo permission fees, and illustrators. Building a more just future requires time, love—and financial support.
Enjoy September. Peace out.
Petra Kassun-Mutch Lana Pesch Founding Publisher, LiisBeth Newsletter & Associate Editor
STARTUP INCUBATORS ARE FAILING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS-SO LET’S FIX IT.
In my line of work as a program consultant, I am often hired to help startup incubators and innovation spaces rethink how they attract and more importantly, retain more women entrepreneurs; In Canada at least, their public funding support is increasingly dependent on doing so.
Turns out, marketing only to women, tossing in a few pink bean bag chairs, and offering free tampons and perfumes in newly labelled gender-neutral washrooms doesn’t cut it. Neither does creating women-only startup programs embedded in co-ed spaces with programs that reinforces the patriarchal status quo. They sound good at first, but soon after the program starts, women entrepreneurs end up feeling ghettoized and stigmatized.
They end up frustrated. They leave. And they don’t come back.
Many people leading co-ed entrepreneurship and innovation incubators acknowledge the still growing body of research that confirms again and again that women face additional barriers as entrepreneurs thanks to gender-bias in our financial systems, sexism, and the realities of biology in an economy designed to privilege people who can delegate caregiving and don’t need time off after physically growing and finally squeezing a new eight to ten pound human out of their bodies–not to mention then feeding them exclusively via your boobs for months after.
In fact, the people running incubators witness examples of the many barriers first hand. They have VIP seats in the stadium when it comes to observing how women experience and must navigate entrepreneurship differently to succeed. They also see how women of colour, indigenous women, newcomers, and those working two jobs to make ends meet. They experience additional challenges.
So why are they having so much trouble figuring out how to help women founders, and their enterprises, flourish?
From a psychological and philosophical perspective, mental health counsellor, Maria Basualdo discusses the critical need for women to unite and work together. “…activism is the only way women can bring about transformation in ourselves, not just socially and politically, but by refusing to be wolf to women in our mundane realities.”
Ria Lupton (middle), LiisBeth Contributor and friends at Montreal Startupfest 2018
Montreal Startup Fest 2018
New Contributor Ria Lupton got an “inclusion” ticket to Startupfest 2018 in Montreal last month. So we asked her to writing a story about her experience as a participant in a program dedicated to “…connecting entrepreneurs from diverse communities to equal opportunities.”
Ultimately, we wanted to know if to find out if things had improved since we last wrote about this tech-fest now in its seventh year.
I knew that billionaire motivational speaker Tony Robbins and I were not aligned in many of our beliefs about how the world worked. But he sure knew how to whip up mass hysteria.
In the video above, you will notice that his euphoric fans represent a diverse, mostly-male-but-good-helping-of-female crowd looking to be primarily…reassured. They are told that if they work hard, remain disciplined, clean, goal-focused, and believe in themselves, the world is theirs to exploit—despite the various systemic oppressions they face. Blaming something other than yourself for your state in life is not part of Robbins’ creed. “Just Say Yes! And presto, you are halfway there!”
Come on. Who doesn’t love a message like that?
But then came Robbins’ #metoo moment where he showed incredible ignorance about the powers that shape the lives of women in the workplace. He apologized. But that wasn’t enough for Kelly Diels.
Kelly Diels, feminist marketing consultant
This is Diels, a feminist marketing expert, who is writing a new book about the female empowerment brand says “…when our most cherished self-help leaders, spiritual teachers, coaches and empowers-of-women are waving the same flag as an MRA, let us agree it is a red one.”
In her free-online-chapter of her upcoming book, Diels critically interrogates the female empowerment brand and highlights the dark role that motivational speakers—mostly male but also many female—play in advancing this dangerous opioid-like narrative.
If you are attending a conference with a motivational speaker as a keynote in the next few weeks, you might want to read this before you go.
LIISBETH FIELD NOTES
Don’t You Want Me
A global photography project showcasing the beauty and resilience of disenfranchised LGBTQ people with their rescued dogs. The coupling of compelling and personal images with accompanying narratives and a celebratory flair, the aim is to show that individuals of all stripes have the shared ability to transform their lives when they are given love and the question of ‘who rescued who’ becomes universal, no matter how you identify.
The project kicks off soon and is currently seeking subjects in Toronto, Brighton UK, and NYC. To participate get in touch here.
Feminist Economics Yoga in Thunder Bay
Cassie Thornton isn’t a healer, she’s just really angry. She is also an artist, an activist, and a kundalini yoga instructor who lives and works between Thunder Bay, Berlin, and Oakland.
In short, Feminist Economics Yoga is combining feminized practices and values like care, health and reproduction with a challenging but accessible yoga practice that focuses on breath and movement. It is designed to heal the nervous system, spine and brain—all areas affected by the experience and challenges of living, breathing, and working in today’s world.
“Practicing feminist economics yoga is a way to remind yourself to check in with what you’re experiencing and see what parts you might want to break up with.” – Cassie Thornton, Feminist Economist
You can help fund production of a new series of yoga video tutorials that aim to help heal our social and economic wounds and move forward collectively by visiting Cassie’s Kickstarter campaign: Let’s Break Up w/ Capitalism!
She is planning a Feminist Economics Yoga workshop is in Thunder Bay later this fall. For more info go to: www.secretchakra.net
Aspen Ideas Festival 2018
Is the Backlash back?
From the Aspen Ideas Festival…Good Feminist, Bad Feminist — Who Gets to Decide?
“The beauty of feminism is that it’s always growing and changing and that we allow space for it.” – Tarana Burke, Founder of #Metoo Movement
Joyce Lee is the founder of herPossibility, a summer camp for girls ages 8 to 14 that focuses on empowering youth to be confident and creative leaders.
The camp will have hands on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) activities to help girls develop their empathy and growth mindset, generate creative ideas, and build self-confidence in group settings.
“This year we’re supporting a group of refugee girls that are new from Syria. And seeing them be able to speak their truth and be themselves is wonderful,” says Lee who encountered a lot of tech bias when she attended the University of Waterloo. “I was always that shy girl in the corner and having that experience really made me want to do something about it.”
You gotta give Svetlana Ratnikova (pictured here hugging the woman in the foreground), founder of Toronto’s Immmigrant Women in Business network a bow. She knows how to energize a group-in a whole hearted and dare we say, uniquely Russian way! LiisBeth attended their last event. The quality of the talks were high. And you have to love the fact that the event was opened up with a toast to the opportunity to be in Canada. If you are a entrepreneur looking to experience global feminism in one room, we highly recommend you give them a try.
WHAT WE’RE READING
Radiant Shimmering Light by Sarah Selecky
Sarah Selecky thanks Kelly Diels in the acknowledgements of her debut novel, Radiant Shimmering Light. “Diels coined the term “Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand” and confronts the subject deftly on her website,” says Selecky. The same could be said of Selecky. The novel is bursting with sparkle and satire, earnestness and colour. The story follows Lilian Quick, a struggling pet-portrait artist who reconnects with her estranged cousin, Eleven Novak, who runs a hugely successful women’s empowerment program called Ascendancy.
Through sharp insight and detailed, entertaining prose, Selecky examines the interconnectedness of art, commerce, and entrepreneurship in a timely resurgence of online feminism.
How We Get Free, edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
The Combahee River Collective Statement was written in April, 1977 but is as relevant today as it was then. It has been referred to as “among the most compelling documents produced by black feminists”. This is one of intersectional feminism’s foundational texts.
The Statement itself has four separate chapters: The Genesis of Contemporary Black Feminism; What We Believe; Problems in Organizing Black Feminist; and Black Feminist Issues and Projects. The published book adds on to this; It includes interviews with original members of the collective.
The writing is eloguent, inspiring and clear as glass. Anyone looking for a good example of a manifesto–or deepen their understanding of intersectional feminism– need look no further.
AND FINALLY…IN CASE YOU MISSED IT!
CIX is seeking female entrepreneurs!
Canada’s highly curated startup investment conference is looking for more submissions to the Top 20 program from female entrepreneurs across Canada as applications in the demographic are low. The summit runs October 22-23rd in Toronto. Apply here.
The Honourable Bardish Chagger, P.C., M.P., Minister of Small Business and Tourism announced the launch of an $8.6 millioncompetitive process to create a Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub to accelerate the accumulation and dissemination of data, knowledge, and best practices regarding women entrepreneurs. Read the news release or find out about the application process here.
LiisBeth Founding Publisher Petra Kassun-Mutch will be speaking about feminist business practice at the upcoming MJBizConINT’LWomen in Cannabis Wednesday, August 15th at George Brown. MJBizConINt’L attracts more than 2,000 attendees and 125+ exhibitors from around the world will meet to discuss the role of the cannabis global marketplace.
Fall is coming! And oh la la! The list of events worth putting on your learning journey calendar is getting longer:
UN Women – Metro NY Chapter: Summer Info Session in NYC
Join the Metro NY Chapter of the U.S. National Committee for UN Women for our semi-annual info session. Learn about their all-volunteer organization and network with other like-minded gender equality warriors! Refreshments will be provided.
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2018
6:30 – 8:30 PM
WeWork
300 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10016
USA
Cost: Suggested donation: $10
RSVP here.
Networking and Inspirational Leadership Event
A new IWB (Immigrant Women in Business) Chapter in Bradford is hosting an exclusive, private gathering. IWB welcomes all, and is especially important place for immigrants. (All genders welcome). Saturday, August 25th, 2018
4:00 – 8:00 PM
CU Optical
157 Holland St E #4
Bradford, ONTARIO
Cost: FREE
Register here.
Venus Fest: A Canadian Music Festival Celebrating Feminism in the Arts
September 20–22nd, 2018
Opera House
735 Queen Street West
Toronto, ONTARIO
Cost: $77 for a three-day pass.
Get tickets here.
Anti-Oppression for Artists + Cultural Producers
This workshop for artists explores the language, theories and practices of anti-oppression in depth. Participants will have access to a plethora of digital and print resources to continue their learning journey beyond the scope of the session. Wednesday, September 26th, 2018
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Wychwood Barns Park
B Current Space
76 Wychwood Avenue
Toronto, ONTARIO M6G 2X7
Cost: PWYC – $55
Register here.
B-Corp Champions Retreat in New Orleans
The annual gathering of mission-driven leaders of the B Corp community focused on collective action and continuous improvement. Open to all employees of Certified B Corps, Impact management partners, nonprofits and academics, and other members of the ‘B Economy’.
September 25 – 27th, 2018
New Orleans, Louisiana
USA
Cost: $400 – $1095 + fees
Register here.
Power the Economy: Growing Women Owned Businesses in Canada
WEConnect International in Canada will host its signature annual event, Power the Economy, for women-owned businesses, multinational corporations, senior government officials, and partner organizations supporting the growth of women’s entrepreneurship across Canada.
October 26th, 2018
Beanfield Centre
105 Princes’ Blvd
Toronto, ONTARIO
Cost: $199
Register here.
The 2018 Entrepreneurial Feminist Forum
November 10 and 11, 2018
The Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen Street West
Toronto, ONTARIO SAVE THE DATE!
Ticket information coming soon.
That brings us to the end of our August newsletter. The next newsletter is scheduled for September 2018.
We are looking for speaker and workshop proposals for the second annual Entrepreneurial Feminist Forum planned for November, 2018. For guidelines, visit the website.
And just one last reminder. If you are considering a way to support feminist entrepreneurs, or help connect women-led initiatives and communities, look no further than cbecoming a subscriber to LiisBeth! We humbly remind you that subscriptionsare $3/month, $7/month or $10/month.
Funds go directly towards paying writers, editors, proofreaders, photo permission fees, and illustrators. Building a more just future requires time, love—and financial support.
The collage above is by Anne-Marie Hood. Artist Statement: What is growth? What is change? And how often do we misinterpret resonance with our own beliefs for growth? Perhaps it is time for a truly new approach where new ears take in sounds made up of the unfamiliar, singing unknown songs in unknown worlds.
VIEWPOINT
A Reflection on Canada’s 2018 Gender Budget
Since the release of the Canadian federal government’s 2018 gender budget at the end of February, there have been dozens of follow-on announcements about initiatives designed to advance women entrepreneurs and women-led enterprises from all sorts of organizations across the country.
On March 6, the Ontario provincial government added its voice and announced that it will also be investing in improving support for women entrepreneurs by launching a new set of initiatives that will “help young women develop an entrepreneurial mindset” through the creation of the Ontario Women’s Entrepreneurship Association.
To date, Ontario is the only province without a women’s enterprise centre or women’s entrepreneurship strategy in Canada.
Sure. Canadian women entrepreneur advocates have already expressed concern that the money designated is long overdue and “not enough”. Many more critics are rightly questioning the implementation strategies. There is legitimate concern that unchanged parental leave pay and child care policies mean continued discrimination against startup founders and small business owners in an economy increasingly characterized by precarious employment gigs. In Ontario, leaders in the field are debating if launching a women’s entrepreneur association is the right approach or first step.
Me? I still remember the Stephen Harper days. So, I am reservedly pleased with the initiatives our various levels of governments are pledging to undertake this year to advance gender justice.
I also appreciate that in both provincial and federal budgets, women entrepreneurs are at least starting to be recognized as a distinct, large, economically vital demographic whose prioritized equality and equity needs are markedly different from those of our corporate sisters.
On this, and to activist women entrepreneurs everywhere working to be heard, I say congratulations. It’s high time that your street-level, in-the-trenches voices finally pierced the routinely media-privileged corporate coterie that tends to dominate the women’s economic advancement public policy conversation.
So when it comes to Budget 2018, I have to agree with Astrid Pregel, a woman with an impressive 20 years of experience advising governments around the world on women’s advancement who wisely quipped the other night, “Sometimes, you gotta know when to clap.”
THIS WEEK ON LIISBETH
CV Harquail Reviews Lauren McKeon’s book, F-Bomb: Dispatches from the War on Feminism
We just finished a week full of activities related to International Women’s Day worldwide.
Feeling alright? Things heading in the right direction?
Maybe. But not so fast. Welcome to the anti-feminist movement in Canada, as illuminated by Lauren McKeon, an award-winning Canadian feminist author and the current digital editor at The Walrus, in her fall 2017 book, F-Bomb: Dispatches from the War on Feminism.
We felt this was an important book. So we commissioned LiisBethian CV Harquail to conduct a book review from an American feminist entrepreneur’s perspective. Harquail concurs with McKeon that “the anti-feminist movement remains strong and [therefore] feminists must find ways to be stronger.” Harquail suggests that this starts with trying to understand their limited world views and better yet, how other systems of oppression are shaping anti-feminist movements.
What’s the best way to honour International Women’s Day and the art + activist women in our society who use pens, instruments, their bodies, and their voice to advance justice—often at great personal expense?
Answer: Take the time to listen to LiisBeth’s Stand Up, Get Up playlist, curated by Aerin Fogel and featuring 10 women whose songs and performances help up see the world differently.
MK Asante, who is an American bestselling author, award-winning filmmaker, recording artist, and distinguished professor, wrote: “The artivist knows that to make an observation is to have an obligation.”
Fogel is a regular playlist contributor for LiisBeth, and founder of Toronto’s fall feminist music festival, Venus Fest. Listen here.
LIISBETH FIELD NOTES
Highlights from Toronto’s International Women’s Day March on March 3, 2018.
It was hailed as the largest IWD March in North America. Toronto’s theme was liberation and justice for Indigenous women, particularly Tina Fontaine. We estimate approximately 3,000 to 4,000 participated.
LiisBethian’s had a busy IWD week: the IWD march in Toronto, the SheEO Summit, several workshops on the feminist business model canvas, and a grand finale at the Social Innovation Bootcamp on gender and the economy held at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University. Go team!
SheEO Entrepreneurship Clubs for Girls is coming to Ontario High Schools!
When SheEO founder Vicki Saunders began her quest in 2015 to create a billion-dollar loan fund for women founders, there were naysayers galore. But no more.
SheEO has found its stride. And then some: Starting this fall, SheEO will be launching entrepreneurship clubs for up to 1500 girls in Ontario high schools.
Just three years in, the fast-growing organization now has 3000 activators globally and 17 Canadian ventures (32 worldwide) under its belt, including seven new SheEOs for 2018, announced at the annual SheEO Summit & Cocktail this week:
Applications for the 2019 investment round will open August 2018. You can sign up to be notified when the application portal opens here!
On Tuesday, March 13, LiisBeth had an opportunity to visit the new feminist bookstore in Montreal called L’Euguélionne. What a treasure trove! The store was well-stocked with feminist, LGBTQ+ and queer books, zines, pamphlets, and more (including this one featured above) in both English and French. The staff were super helpful and knowledgeable. We Say. Just. Go. And if you are interested in what makes an enterprise feminist, check out this zine!
Alexandra Ketchum, author of the zine How to Start a Feminist Restaurant, says, “Feminist restaurants are spaces that take their food and labour politics seriously. They challenge the status quo…and provide a space for political organizing, recreational activity, and commerce.” Ketchum also holds workshops on the topic. To connect with her, visit her Facebook page. To learn more about feminist bookstores, read our feature story here.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT!
Have you heard of the term “stretch collaboration”? While conventional collaboration tends to be organized around like-minded people working together, stretch collaborations involve working with individuals or groups that can actually tighten your throat at the mere thought of their name. According to author Adam Kahane, “…stretch collaboration encourages us to use the power of discomfort to craft and experiment our way forward with multiple options or possibilities…”
Calling LiisBethians in STEM: Is your business about A.I., Big Data, or 3D Printing?Innovative Solutions Canada is a new program with over $100 million dedicated to supporting the scale-up and growth of Canada’s STEM-based innovators and entrepreneurs by having the federal government act as a first customer. The program is designed to encourage government procurement from companies led by under-represented groups, such as women, Indigenous, youth, disabled individuals, LGBTQ+ and others. You can find more information here.
Calling LiisBethians under 25! You might want to apply to the Youth Can Do It! initiative where 25 diverse young entrepreneurs will be selected to come to Ottawa in June to connect with inspiring business experts who will support their journey forward. Can’t hurt, right?
CAN’T MISS EVENTS
Understanding Your Taxes: Knowledge is Power, For Women Entrepreneurs
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
2:00 PM–3:00 PM
2111 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON
Cost: FREE. Registerhere.
How to Create Multiple Sources of Income
Thursday, March 29, 2018
6:00 PM–9:30 PM
Baka Gallery Cafe
2256 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON
Cost: $25. Registerhere.
CryptoChicks Hackathon and Conference
Friday, April 6 to Sunday, April 8, 2018
MaRS Discovery District
101 College St., Toronto
Cost: $50–$500. Register here.
Details: “This is an open invitation to take part in a bold blockchain event. Women are underrepresented in the crypto space and with your help, we want to change that.”
Walking Your Why: Discovering Your Values Perspective
Thursday, April 12, 2018
6:00 PM–8:00 PM
School for Social Entrepreneurs
CSI Annex
720 Bathurst St., Toronto, ON
Cost: $50. Registerhere.
That’s it for our mid-March International Women’s Day roundup newsletter!
Like what we do? Support us! It’s easy! Subscriptions are $3/month, $7/month or $10/month. We accept PayPal and credit cards. And we also now have a Patreon page!
Funds go directly towards paying writers, editors, proofreaders, photo permission fees, and illustrators. Remember, there is no other feminist business media voice dedicated to supporting those looking to build and grow ventures in alignment with their feminist values.
The next newsletter is scheduled for the end of March 2018. In the meantime, enjoy the better weather!
This year I ended up celebrating the winter solstice at Kensington Market in Toronto for the first time with new friends. Paul, the initiator, described it to me as a sort of “mini-burning man”. It was an apt description. After a brief parade of giant puppets, pagan costumes and a few hundred urban revellers of all ages carrying homemade lanterns, the colourful, lit collective gathered with others in Alexandra Park, where a 20-foot high purpose-built sculpture was thereafter set on fire. The red embers floated up towards the sky while white snowflakes fell. There was drumming, dancing, and hot drinks. The diverse crowd cheered while also stamping their feet and rubbing their mittened hands together for added warmth on this dark, minus 20 centigrade December night.
While watching the flame devour the papier-mâché and chicken wire animal god sculpture, I noticed the togetherness that the fire aroused in all of us. I was also struck by the fact that while the source of holiday light varies for different cultures and backgrounds—Christmas trees, menorahs, lanterns—there was a certain universality to how people practice the season; It almost always involves acts of generosity, goodwill, healing, and reconnection. Participating in the season in this way leaves you with a sense that renewal is not only possible-but on its way.
It was a welcome feeling that night. And it still persists on this New Year’s Eve day.
THIS WEEK ON LIISBETH
Winter Solstice Playlist: Beginnings, Endings, and Bridges
LiisBeth is pleased to bring you this smoldering, contemplative and appropriately named new year playlist curated by Aerin Fogel, Toronto musician and founder of Venusfest, a Toronto-based feminist music festival.
The collection features some well-known artists like Bjork, as well as emerging artists like Lido Pimienta (below), a Columbian-Canadian musician and human rights advocate who won this year’s Polaris Music Prize for her album, La Papessa.
The Polaris Prize is based on artistic merit without regard to sales history or label affiliation. Winners are selected by “a Grand Jury of 11 music media professionals drawn from the greater Polaris jury pool of almost 200 writers, editors, broadcasters, DJs and personalities from across the country.
It’s here! The LiisBeth 2018 Feminist Entrepreneur Reading List!
After the entrepreneurial feminist forum in November, many attendees asked for a list of recommended readings to help them dig deeper into the concepts and topics introduced at the November 11 forum held in Toronto at the Ontario College of Art University. We thought “Good idea!” So here is the list which includes 20 books and five readings.
You can download it here. Oh, and I think it goes without saying, don’t try to read them all at once! S–p–a–c–e it out.
We hope it will give your feminist business practice what you need soar in 2018.
LiisBeth is Now on Patreon!
You may not realize this, but LiisBeth runs on passion diesel and volunteer time, plus the paid contributions of over 20 freelance contributors, editors, and visual artists.
Grants are hard to come by given what we do. (Feminist business practice is for some, still too niche or too scary to contemplate!). We are working on recruiting angel investors who are passionate about the cause. No luck yet. But we’re not giving up!
In the meantime, it’s really up to us, entrepreneurial feminists, to keep this conversation going and growing.
This is our humble ask: If you have read, benefited from, shared, attended one of our events, heard us speak at a conference, or talked about LiisBeth’s work at least once, we would love to see you deepen your engagement with us by supporting this work not only with your attention and praise but with donations as well.
We have lots of options. Our subscriptions range from $3 to $10 per month. Or, you can make a one time $5 or $100 donation. It’s up to you to determine what level of support works for your budget.
LiisBeth is open access regardless of how much you donate—and will remain so.
If cash is not an option, you can support us in other ways:
Share this newsletter with five friends and encourage them to sign up for our newsletter themselves.
We are also interested in any in-kind hours of support in areas like social media production, volunteering at events, donated photos or artwork for articles, copyediting, and proofreading.
We are also very interested in speaking to audiences to help more people engage with feminism at work and entrepreneurial feminism. If you need a savvy, energetic feminist entrepreneur speaker or panelist, drop us a line. We know many of them and are happy to recommend!
If you would like us to help promote your next event, let us know! We charge $50.00-$100.00 per website listing plus social media support.
To donate now, please click here or visit our Patreon site here. We are sincerely grateful for any and all types of support.
Are We Making A Difference? Is Our Work Helping to Advance Gender Equity and Equality?
We have published over 129 articles and have hosted over 500 people at our various events, salons, and forum since we began in February 2016.
But are we having an impact? Are we contributing to advancing gender justice through our work?
In December, LiisBeth decided to take stock, reflect and publish our findings.
You deserve to know if your contributions are helping us make a difference.
We need to know if we are using our resources in an optimal way given our mission.
In early fall, Toronto’s Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship held a design-led workshop with 25 women entrepreneurs and asked them how they would like to see $450K in provincial funding spent on supporting Ontario women entrepreneurs. They just released their report. You can find it here. And watch for the call for proposals early in 2018. here.
CAN’T MISS EVENTS
Jan. 20: Innovation in Craft & Design
A talkpresented by Interior Designers of Canada.
3:00PM–5:00PM, C536-43 Hanna Avenue, Toronto. Free. Register here.
April 10–11: Diversity Procurement Fair
Presented by The Canadian Aboriginal and Minority Supplier Council (CAMSC), Beanfield Centre, 105 Princes’ Blvd., Toronto
That brings us to the end of our last newsletter for 2017
Again, we hope you enjoyed it as well as our deeper reads at www.liisbeth.com.
Again, we could also really use your support. Please consider a donation, either as a lump sum ($5, $10, $100, anything will make a difference!) or monthly subscription between $3 to $10 dollars. Remember 100% of our dollars goes towards paying writers, editors, and creators a living wage rate for their work. You might even know a few of them!
The next newsletter is scheduled for mid-January.
Until then, we wish you a very happy, prosperous and generous new year.
I am just going to say it: Canada has a massive blind spot when it comes to the 1.5 million women entrepreneurs operating in this country. And it won’t change until women entrepreneurs wake up, organize, and demand to be taken seriously.
Time after time, policy-makers, startup gurus, and institutions seem to think that women who work for others (i.e., corporations) and women who found companies are one in the same.
News flash: they are not. While these two groups of women are sisters, women entrepreneurs have very different priorities.
The failure to recognize this difference and develop productive initiatives to address the needs of women entrepreneurs has long been highlighted in several task force reports over the past decade. The new McKinsey Global Institute report called The Power of Parity: Advancing Women’s Equality in Canada packs a powerful punch as it reveals the impact of the failure to act: $150 billion in overall lost economic potential in Canada alone. An estimated 40% of this lost potential is attributed to the state of women’s entrepreneurship in this country.
The report also says that at the present rate we’re going, it will take another 180 years for Canada to achieve gender parity in entrepreneurship. And, while there has been some progress for women in the workplace in terms of narrowing the wage gap, career advancement opportunities, and representation on private boards, the report concludes that extreme inequality still exists in just four out of 15 indicators: political representation, STEM education and occupations, and entrepreneurship.
Since 2008, conditions for women entrepreneurs have actually gotten worse, despite incredible spending on entrepreneurship and innovation support in the form of incubators, accelerators, and other programs galore across the country, at both provincial and federal levels. Why?
On the upside, Canada’s new “feminist” government seems to have the will to change this, though many are beginning to question its commitment. One only has to look at the composition of the much-lauded bi-national Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders launched by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and American presidential advisor and first daughter Ivanka Trump. The appointees (listed below) are all smart, accomplished, mostly white ladies. But how many are representative of mainstream owner/operator entrepreneurs, women who have funded and built new businesses from scratch?
Spoiler alert: The only one to have raised money for her own new venture is Ivanka Trump. Enough said.
Mainstream media coverage of women’s advancement tends to focus on the dearth of women on corporate boards, or the lack of career advancement in corporations and initiatives to address them such as the 30% Club or corporate internal male-female sponsorship programs.
The needs of our corporate sisters are real and important, but they dominate the agenda.
So how do we bring similar levels of attention to the issues that matter to women entrepreneurs?
I say it’s time women and other gender-minority entrepreneurs organize and use their own voices to advocate for systems change. We are 1.5 million strong, represent 16% (or 36% jointly owned) of all enterprises in Canada, and over $2 billion in GDP.
Joyful Militancy
