Women Are a Hot Topic, But It’s Access to Capital That Counts
It’s surprising given women’s dismal holdings of positions of leadership and global wealth- but empowering women is very hot right now. It’s wonderful to see. At conferences, corporate and NGO presentations, and media sessions I frequent, leaders stress their organizations’ commitment to improving the global situation of women and girls. I usually experience three common themes in these discussions.
Theme One: Teach a Woman to Fish, Save the World
This argument is a given among leaders now: empowering women and girls globally is crucial to global security, ending violence, and lifting countries out of poverty. This year, almost 32% of the commitments from public and private entities at the Clinton Global Initiative directly impacted women and girls through classroom education, health education, micro finance and other teaching tactics. It’s crucial, lifesaving work.
CGI is a public private partnership, but the heavy lifting in creating such programs has been done by NGOs, governments and other charitable entities, according to Dr. Isobel Coleman from the Council on Foreign Relations. She says if you add up all the money spent on women by NGOs and other non-profit organizations it’s somewhere under $5 billion dollars. This is significant money but pales compared to the estimated $1 trillion alone of investment capital wanting to invest in socially responsible business. Dr. Coleman notes, it is crucial to enlist the private sector in this empowerment to really make change.
At CGI, Andrew Kassoy, Co-founder, B Lab said there are 60-70 million consumers who WANT to buy from good companies. And many companies, whether explicitly socially responsible in their charter or not, have the intention to have a positive impact on society. But it’s tough to make money and it’s hard for socially responsible businesses to scale. Many explicitly pro-women businesses are in this spot.
Theme Two: Women are Power Consumers, Hence They Have Power
Nearly every US-focused public conversation will touch on women’s sheer might as consumers of goods and services. Organizations usually seize women’s purchasing power as proof of the strength of women’s voices in the marketplace. I’m not sure this translates. And frankly, if I hear this statistic again, I’m going to scream: women drive 85% of household purchases. Women are the “Chief Household Officers.” Women are the power consumers…you know the story.
This information is accurate, valuable and hey, I make my living largely from it. But it’s not enough to change the balance of power and improve the global plight of women. I’ve written before how the single-minded emphasis on women’s role as power consumer is the new Feminine Mystique. I don’t see much evidence that women’s predominance as consumers of packaged goods, etc. translates into our larger power.
Theme Three: If Things Are Really Going to Change, Women Need More Access to Capital
Empowering women as producers of economic wealth is the hardest part of the equation to solve. There is incredible work being done globally and in the US in the micro-finance sector, but women need access to capital beyond the micro scale. There are two examples I want to highlight below of how this can be done at scale.
Wal-Mart’s recent commitment to empower women is an example of bringing socially responsible business to scale but also of an organization committing to tackle the hardest question behind women’s lack of global equity.
In a strong new women’s empowerment initiative, Wal-Mart has taken the lead doubling sourcing from women suppliers, source $20 billion from women owned businesses. They promise to track and measure their actual spending with women suppliers worldwide and hold themselves accountable. This includes large and small batch producers of goods and services.
Wal-Mart also pledges to work with more women professional services providers, such as lawyers, ad agencies, accountants and technology firms. Yes, Wal-Mart has a tough record when it comes to championing women in the workplace. But ultimately, it’s empowering women as key producers in the multi-billion dollar Wal-Mart supply chain. The vision, according to Executive Vice President for Corporate Affairs Leslie Dach, is to bring about a “global marketplace where women’s contributions are really and truly valued…Helping women live better will make Wal-Mart a stronger business.”
It’s not micro, and while it’s a PR campaign, there are real numbers behind it.
And yes, in a press conference to announce the initiative, he noted women are the majority of Wal-Mart shoppers. But I’ll forgive him that one.
Second, there’s great energy afoot to increase the number of women on corporate boards of directors. The average Fortune 500 company board is only 16% women. This means corporate decisions that affect us in the US and all over the world are 84% made by men. Doesn’t that figure put the “82% of purchases are made by women” figure into a stark new light?
At a launch for the new non-profit organization 2020Women on Boards, both MA State Treasurer Steve Grossman and CEO of PAX Worldwide Joe Keefe, who runs a mutual fund featuring only companies that invest in gender equality, drummed home this simple and powerful point: women hold more power than we think. Not only are many women individual investors in mutual funds, but our pension funds, unions and employers are among the largest holders of company shares. Every year, we are sent proxy forms and we usually throw them out or check the boxes suggested. But these boxes approve Boards of Directors, and we can use our proxy votes to change things; we need to read them, and scout them for gender diversity. There are also several new databases that host the information of thousands of qualified women Board candidates. This is a powerful way to change the ratio and get more women on Boards.
Because it’s all about numbers, and all about scale.
Disclosure: I did consulting work for Wal-Mart at a past job in 2005.
Women Out In Front
Being at a tech conference that was 50% women speakers felt different. When the women get up on stage and talk about concepts I don’t understand, I know things are shifting. At Personal Democracy Forum 2011 (PDF) in New York City the ratio of female to male speakers was 47% to 53%. PDF is a forum where activists, intellectuals and policymakers from all over the world gather to explore the digital age’s impact on governance and society.
The parade of thinkers, revolutionaries and world-crafters was as diverse as those who are leading change. And honestly, I believe it was women’s role in the uprisings in the Middle East this spring that inspired such diversity at this year’s conference in lower Manhattan. This doesn’t mean to sugarcoat the events or outcomes in the Middle East, but to acknowledge the very true public role of women there.
Because the medium is the message, we need to always look critically at who is up on the big stage driving discussion at major conferences. It’s who you see who sets the agenda, and if you have worked in the technology or media space for some time, you know that a constant refrain from producers is, “I wanted to invite more women, but I just couldn’t find them.”
Even the inimitable Kara Swisher just wrote “about how all the often touchy-feely men entrepreneurs of the hottest Web 2.0 companies ha[ve] a glaring problem. While most of them have women as a majority of their customers, they could not seem to find even one qualified woman for any of their boards. This makes it a struggle even in programming our D: All Things Digital conferences. We have featured almost every significant female tech exec we could.”
At the PDF Conference, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was the most senior U.S. elected official to speak. Senator Gillibrand spoke to the crowd about her commitment to using the Internet to make politicians (including herself) more accountable to voters. Amid other speakers’ vivid snapshots of the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, Senator Gillibrand referred to the drive for more transparency in the U.S. Congress as “a quiet touch of revolution.” For example, Gillibrand will publish her Federal Election Commission campaign finance disclosures online, in easily searchable electronic format. She also put all her earmark requests online so voters can see what money she is requesting.
Gillibrand drew praise from the Sunlight Foundation’s Ellen Miller for voluntary disclosures she makes already, including her schedule of official meetings, voting record, and federal funding requests.
New York’s Junior Senator also touched on the issue of accessibility. She said we need to make sure all Americans have access to the internet, and she is working on increasing funding for rural broadband access.
Gillibrand is 44, not quite a Digital Native but of the generation that recognizes digital issues are paramount to American competitiveness and that Internet facility and access are key. It’s a far cry from a highlight of the conference in 2008, when digital strategist Tracy Russo asked of then presidential-candidate John McCain “how can a person who doesn’t know how to operate a computer be the kind of leader we need to move us forward and fulfill the potential all of our tomorrows hold?”
Three years later, in the aftermath of the economic collapse, the revolutions in the Middle East and social media’s role in each, I can’t imagine a viable U.S. leader admitting, as McCain did, that he doesn’t “really do computers” (insert Anthony Weiner comparison here).
Keep reading at BlogHer.com
Chief Cook and Bottle Washer
My mother, who grew up in the Midwest in the 1950’s, can do anything with her hands. She can sew, cook, fix plumbing, and diagnose an electrical problem. She can garden, compost, paint, and decorate. She taught me how to drive and she could parallel park the Titanic. Like most women of her generation, she knew how to practice a true home economy: running the family, house and all its accompanying demands on budget and efficiently. This seems a lost art.
My mom was a highly educated educator but she stayed home to raise us. She and my dad had a deal: she was “the inside man” in our family growing up. My father was the “outside man” and he earned a good living for us all. He couldn’t do it today, not on what he earned. But earn it he did and we had a nice life. Until she and my dad divorced, and my mom went back to work, and the home economy became cereal for dinner and a messy house. There’s a lesson in that.
I, on the other hand, can do almost nothing manual (I am a pretty good cook). I’m grateful to have the education and skills to earn a decent living, and so that’s what I do.
The website Primary Dilemma offers a way at looking at working mother “methods.” Founder Lynn Hall identifies five types of working mom methods- methods, I think, are the way we balance responsibilities at home and work. Although I like to defy typology, I suppose I fit into “equalizer”- equally engaged in work and parenting. This is a label I’ll proudly wear.
However, the downside of being an equalizer is that everything besides parenting and working becomes a nagging problem to be solved. And because I spend all the time I’m not earning a living trying to parent and be a wife, I outsource everything domestic I possibly can.
Recently, to help move house, I hired a woman I found on Craig’s List to help pack boxes. I figured paying her to pack so I could work made economic sense. But Barbara helped shift my thinking about how I invest my time. Barbara writes a blog called“The Chief Cook and Bottle Washer,” an old saying I’ve become fond of. Barbara explained her typical week to me: as the stay at home mother of three she’d planned meals carefully, assembled a shopping list, and on Tuesdays, had leftover night, in which the fridge was cleaned out and dinner was whatever was left. Nothing was wasted and convenience food was minimized.
This approach impressed and frankly stunned me. My approach to cooking has become as unbalanced as my work days (constant checking of email when I’m supposed to be with the kids, and vice versa): we’d either scrounge around for cereal or whatever is in the fridge, or I’d spend way too much at Whole Foods on an elaborate, organic spree, and feel guilt after. There was no sense of purpose or sense.
I need to save money and regain pride in my domestic role. I know that as a professional working mother I’m supposed to outsource as much as possible to retain time for parenting, but I think this approach leaves us alienated from our home environment, and possibly, even more broke than we already are after paying for childcare.
The lost art of home economy gets confused with craft and decorating “porn.” Home economy is not about buying expensive materials to create elaborate crafts, and it’s not about cooking exotically or keeping the perfect home. It’s not about Martha Stewart Living and the plentiful, aspirational approach to domestic consumption. It’s about practical consumption.
There’s been much written, mostly aimed at men, along the Shop Class for the Soul bent. Books and articles ask men to return to the soulful craft of making things with one’s hands. “Artisanal” and “locavore” have become clichés. But what’s a working mother who wants to simply manage her costs, not become Pioneer Woman or start another urban farm?
It’s been a big discussion and challenge among my friends: how to be more mindful when it comes to household consumption. Here is my small start.
Simply, stick to a monthly household food budget. I’m starting with grocery shopping and I’m reclaiming my wifely role as ‘chief cook and bottle washer.” Each week, I have a shopping list and a shopping budget. I’m buying less convenience food and packaged kids food, which is incredibly expensive. I’m trying to buy organic, but only what’s on special.
I’m trying, like Barbara, to plan meals ahead, and only buy what I need. It’s a powerful shift in thinking and it’s a lot of work.
Domestic economy is more work than working.
#onemoms
I’m sharing this post from Cooper Monroe as we get ready to celebrate Mother’s Day with One. For too many women, motherhood is NOT about getting body back after baby, balancing work and family, or finding time for you. It’s about survival. We can’t forget this in the rush of our daily lives.
It’s a profound honor to be a part of ONE’s Mom Advisory Committee and to recognize Mother’s Day here today with all of you.
I’m a mom of four from Pittsburgh, Penn., and I co-run a website for mothers called The Motherhood. We’ve learned many truths about mothers through our community, but these three remind me the most of what we are focusing on with ONE:
1. Even though mothers often carry the burdens of the world, they do so on strong shoulders.
2. Moms have an unmatched ability to “make it happen.”
3. A mothers’ DNA carries within it the mantra, “leave everything better than you found it.”In other words, mothers make the world go around.
We witness it all the time. Ordinary moms, every day, see a need — and without hesitation do what they can to make a difference in that need. That is why I love formally bringing moms into ONE, with all that represents and everything it will help make happen.
Maria Mchele Mwasonge of Tanzania is a powerful inspiration to me as we move forward.
Maria and her five kids used to sleep on a rag that covered the floor, but that all changed when Maria was trained how to grow sweet potatoes.
From her small potato farm, Maria has built a thriving business. Now her children go to school and the family lives in a new home. Other farmers have learned from Maria how she grows the most nutrient-rich plants, and in the process local health clinics report that malnutrition in the area’s young children has dropped.
Even when she sleeps, Maria said, she thinks about her potatoes.
(If you haven’t already, be sure to read the ONE report “Africa’s Future is Female,” which includes Maria’s story.)
An age-old description of mothers popped into my head when I read about Maria: “She is a tree of life to them.”
“Them” is certainly her children, but when it comes to mothers, many times “them” means everyone she can help or lift up in her own way.
Today at 1 PM ET, The Motherhood will be hosting a live, text-based talk with the ONE Campaign and Every Mother Counts to celebrate mothers everywhere. Please join us and share what inspires you about mothers and learn more about what we can do to help mothers and kids around the globe who need us.
We hope to see you there!
PS. This amazing video by Former First Lady Laura Bush is a beautiful reminder that for moms, one child is every child. I hope it motivates you as much as it did me!
Follow Cooper on Twitter: @coopermunroe
For Women, Social Networking is Serious Business
Cross-posted from the Massachusetts’ Conference for Women site (#Masswomen).
I recently taught a digital skills workshop for graduate students at Harvard’s Kennedy School. A guest in the audience, who was about 45, raised her hand and said, “Well, you’re all so young. What about women like me? Is there a space for us in social media”?
The twentysomethings in the audience immediately supported her with comments like, “My mom is my Facebook friend!” The truth is, the fastest growing demographic group on Facebook is women over 55. And in almost every age group, Facebook is growing faster with women than men. Women are over 56% of Facebook’s audience, and 45% of Facebook’s US audience is now 26 years old or older.
For mid-career women, becoming social network savvy is serious business. Whether you’re working for a large company or for yourself, you need to establish a digital brand. Women Online will be ready to help at the Conference for Women with our interactive session, “Using Social Media to Establish Your Brand.” In the meantime, here is some food for thought about why it’s so crucial you engage online:
- You’ll get access to new networks. Research shows that women’s social and professional networks look different than men’s, and this can hurt us professionally. Women tend to have fewer weak ties, more all-female reference groups, and more contacts who are peers, less who are superiors. As the network scholar Howard Aldrich wrote, after work, “men head for cocktails [or golf], women head for the dry cleaner.” Online media fundamentally changes this equation. You can be at home and still engage in the virtual cocktail party.
- A digital brand is portable and permanent. Women can lose out professionally because most of us take some time out of the paid workforce to raise children. If you take time off to have a baby or opt-out of a career ladder progression, your online presence can still grow and burnish your professional reputation. Your online brand is layoff proof and it can grow with you as your expertise grows. For all generations, jumping in and out of the traditional workforce is “the new normal” according to Ellen Galinsky and the Families and Work Institute. Keeping up a strong professional profile online allows you to stay engaged even if you’re not officially working.
- Establish your expertise and credentials. Digital publishing and creating a strong digital brand allows you to establish expertise in your field while bypassing traditional gatekeepers or barriers to success. Google rank plus links to your work=credentials in the digital age. Again, research shows women feel the need to be more credentialed before assuming positions of power. Strong use of social media allows us to build credentials without breaking into traditional networks (if we’re part of those networks, even better—we can link out to more women).
- Strong community ties. We get by with a little help from them…online friends build social capital, plus they’re a wonderful addition to life. Online community can help busy women feel connected, listened to, and recharged, on our terms and at the time of day that works for us.
Learn more at the Conference: please join my colleague Susan Getgood at “Using Social Media to Build Your Brand.”
Morra Aarons Mele is the founder of Conference Sponsor Women Online, a digital PR and marketing firm (www.wearewomenonline.com). She is an Internet marketer who has been working with women online since 1999. She helped Hillary Clinton log on for her first Internet chat, and launched Wal-Mart’s first blog. She has written for BlogHer.com, Huffington Post, MomsRising and Guardian.co.uk and has covered events from the White House to the campaign trail to Harvard Law School in her role as a blogger on women, politics, and work. Morra is the author of “Women and Leadership in the Digital Age,” part of the upcoming Sage Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership.
About Me
Morra Aarons-Mele utilizes social media strategies to help employers, employees and communities connect. She also consults with leading organizations on how women can use the internet for professional and personal development. In her spare time, Morra enjoys blogging about women and politics. Read her full bio >>
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