Women Business Owners: Standing on the Shoulder

Pads of Giants. By Kristin Slice, MA

Empowered Lab CommunicationsPhoto and Content Credit: National Women’s History Museum 2013

What is the definition of Entrepreneur? Understanding Past Major Events

Trends that Affect Your Business Today

Current State of WBO’s

Looking to the Future

A History

1910-1939

• Culture has always influenced women business owner growth• Industries, access to capital, language• Progressivism, feminism, consumerism and immigration 

1940-1959 Post WWII

The Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs and state officials—first in New York and then nationwide founded 1919—ran workshops for aspiring entrepreneurs with advice from trailblazers such as Elizabeth Arden and male business leaders.

1940-1959 Post WWII

The rise of the home based business.

1960 -1970 A Time of Change• Civil Rights and Feminism changed the way women understood themselves and their rights.

• Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited sex discrimination in employment by any company with more than twenty employee.

1960 -1970 A Time of Change•  Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, written by Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY). This law made it illegal for creditors to discriminate against applicants based on sex, as well other categories.

•  Equal Credit Opportunity Act in 1973—which banned discrimination lending—paved the way for a future revolution in capitalizing woman-owned enterprises with more than just credit cards and savings, as women had traditionally done.11

HR 5050 Women’s Business Ownership Act 

“1988, urged on by the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), Congress passed The Women’s Business Ownership Act,

which ended discrimination in lending, eliminated state laws that required married women to have a

husband’s signature for all loans and gave women-owned businesses a chance to compete for lucrative government contracts. Proof that

women entrepreneurs were finally an accepted part of the mainstream economy.”

HR 5050 Women’s Business Ownership Act • The establishment of programs to assist women • The elimination of all remaining state laws that required

women to have a male relative sign a business loan• Quotas for granting procurement contracts • The formation of the Women's Business Enterprise National

Council and National Women’s Business Council• The expansion of the data collection parameters required

by the Census Bureau to more accurately gather data about women-owned businesses.23

Trends

The Role of the Economy During the challenging economic cycles of the last century, traditional ideas about gender roles have been a significant factor in driving women to become entrepreneurs.

• Great Depression –women started business to “not compete ”

• 1970 Recessions – women where the first let go

• 2008 Recession – women entrepreneurs the only populations to continue to grow.

Motivation• Glass Ceiling

• Work Schedule

• Discrimination

• Necessity

Change Agents• Leadership

• Advocacy

• Networking

• Capital

Today

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