The Government has a Women's Enterprise Taskforce, with the Australian Glenda Stone as co-chair. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Ms Stone has said she wants to take women's enterprise from mainly cottage industry status to something that creates wealth and jobs, and makes a significant contribution to the economy.
Ms Stone has a mantra of "profit before passion", while it appears she finds the desire to do something emotionally and psychologically rewarding unhelpful unless it can also turn an exceptionally healthy profit. She wants to see business support for women targeted at those who see their business as more than just a hobby.
This article got to me in a big way, and annoyed me. Don't get me wrong - I am and have always been a fervent feminist, but one of the things that gave feminism a bad name was women bashing other women, and trying to be ballsier than the men they felt in competition with. Here is a woman saying that in order to be a women entrepreneur, as opposed to a woman dabbler, you have to suppress those ambitions and aims that come from your nurturing and supporting side. I'm pretty sure that is not the case.
While it is true that a substantial number of women start a small business as a way of getting back into working life following a career break to have and raise children, there are also a lot of women who go into business who do not have children, or who have not taken a career break. Is money really the driver for every entrepreneur - male or female? No. Go back to Maslow's hierarchy of needs!!
Everyone needs to feel safe, warm, with adequate nutrition - these are basic rights and needs, and unless they are satisfied, they will dominate the activity of the individual. But after that, why do we strive for more, to do better? This is where things like quality of life and self-actualisation and self-worth come into play.
For a number of years I was a public servant - I put in the hours and the miles to do what I thought would have a positive impact on the wellbeing of my fellow citizens. I became a woman entrepreneur when I could see, with regret, that actually what I was doing was not making any difference, that I could feel little pride in what I was doing, that the long daily commute was doing nothing for my health or my personal life, and that most of the time away from work, I was too drained to make a positive contribution to my family or my community.
While I make a profit, I don't think I fit Ms Stone's entrepreneurial ideal, in that my way of working and what I do is designed to give me a feeling of pride, of a job well done, while at the same time, having the work/life balance right. In addition, I do all that without the excuse of being a Mum.
The other thing that worries me about all this is that it focuses on businesses owned by women - once you get out of the sole trader/company with single director model, there is a high likelihood that the business will be owned by a mixture of men and women. Will the introduction of one man into the ownership or management mix of a company make that business more likely to succeed, be profitable, aim for growth, achieve growth? I am not sure it will, but that one man will make the business invisible to the women's enterprise taskforce.
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