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Tag: female entrepreneurship

Why women are the makers of culture equality

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an outsized impact on gender equality. Although both men and women have been negatively impacted, women have been hit much harder.

Women have less work, less income, and less job security now than before the pandemic, and the gender gap has widened, extending the estimated time to gender equality by 51 years, according to research by Accenture.

Society, including business, has largely been made by men for men. In the wake of COVID, women have an opportunity, really the obligation, to take on the role of “culture equality maker.”

Years of research show that greater gender equality benefits all of society: men and women, rich and poor, young and old. Not just the right thing to do, gender equality brings more inclusive and accurate decision-making; more innovation resulting in growth; better health; increased education; greater economic stability, and stronger workplace cultures.

Additionally, expectations for equality will only increase as younger generations, who are more concerned with culture, continue to join the workforce.

Shouldn’t all of these benefits mean that diversity is a top strategic priority for business leaders? So far in our history, that has not happened.

The new W20/Accenture report, “If Not Now, When?” unfortunately finds that most business leaders still rank diversity and workplace culture low on their list of priorities (34 percent and 21 percent respectively), favoring their top focus on financial performance and brand recognition (76 percent and 72 percent respectively).

What we need at this moment is bold business leaders who believe in and prioritize diversity and are committed to developing workplaces based on equality, empowerment, and other factors that help workers thrive.

I believe that women are well suited to this role based on our lived experience with inequity and our leadership aptitude (outscoring men on 12 of 16 outstanding leadership competencies in recent Harvard Business Review survey data).

Why Women

Although there has been progress here and there, the decades-old statistics related to gaps in pay and opportunity still reflect women’s reality in 2021. It’s not just wages that are lopsided for women.

Although women-owned businesses continue to grow at a fast pace in our country, they lag behind businesses run by their male counterparts in funding, number of employees, and revenue.

This, despite the fact that companies with the most women on their executive teams outperform companies with the fewest women.

You’d be wrong to assume that companies seek out skilled leaders who could increase performance—at least if they are women.

Instead, women are more likely to be promoted to leadership positions during times of crisis or economic downturn where there’s a higher risk of failure, in what’s often known as “falling off the glass cliff.”

Most adults believe that male and female leaders have different leadership styles, but few think one gender’s approach is better overall, according to Pew research.

However, while men are seen as more willing to take risks, women leaders are perceived to be stronger in traits like compassion, empathy, and compromise. These traits make women highly suitable to lead in the most challenging situations.

In 2020, a record number of women replaced males as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies because they were seen as better able to help steer their companies through the volatile pandemic environment. There’s plenty of room at the top for women; we need to create a cultural path to get there.

The fact is that discrimination in pay, hiring, promoting, and funding are, and have always been, typical and accepted business practices when it comes to women.

As a result of the pandemic, many more companies are finally realizing that people can be trusted to work remotely. What else have they learned that may lead to more gender equality? I believe that as we recover, women have a unique opportunity to drive culture equality and make sure that all boats rise in workplaces across the country.

Supporting female-owned small businesses

Women’s Small Business Month is a time to recognize the tremendous achievements that our country’s female entrepreneurs have made. During the month of October, people were encouraged to support female-owned businesses, and celebrate these women who have made a substantial difference in the growth of our country’s economy. Even though the month has ended, this support cannot stop. Every month we should be lifting up female business owners and making a concerted effort to support them. 

Women-owned businesses make up roughly 11.4% of Colorado businesses, a percentage that is far too small, but one that I am proud to be a part of as the owner of Copper Door Coffee Roasters here in Denver.

I have always wanted to own a business in an industry that I love—for me, that’s the coffee industry. Seven years ago, I purchased the company from a neighbor who was running it as a wholesale business roasting the coffee in his garage. Today, Copper Door Coffee has three locations in Denver and has wholesale accounts around the country. As a business owner, a mother of two children, and a former literature professor, I want to show other women that we can do more than we think when balancing parenting and work – especially when it is our passion. 

As one of Denver’s 100% female-owned coffee companies, we try our best to support other female business owners by purchasing a majority of our coffee from other women producers both locally and around the world.  Our customers purchase coffee from us because they not only want exceptional coffee, but they also want to support other women-owned businesses.

This cause is especially important to us throughout the pandemic. Our local community has helped keep us alive and thriving, but in April and May, our business took a sharp hit and we lost up to 70% of our sales due to closures. Given the environment, we really had to start investing more in our online presence in order to continue keeping our community engaged when they could no longer sit down and linger at our coffee shop like they used to. The pandemic really pushed us to build our online presence and social media has been monumental in our comeback this year. 

We enhanced our website and began offering pick-up and delivery options. The Facebook Shops tool has also been a surprisingly easy way to sell our coffee directly to our existing fan base and reach new followers. All of our coffees are sold on the Shops tab, ranging from the Ethiopia Gedeb roast and our Four Sisters Espresso, to the River Rock blend.

With over 2,300 followers, this Facebook tool allows our customers to choose how large of a coffee bag they would like, whether they would like whole or ground beans, and they are also able to see what flavors are in each coffee, all on the platform. These online sales have helped us survive COVID and we were still able to open a new cafe next to Denver’s Botanical Gardens, which had been in the works for over a year and will help offset the revenue lost for a quarter of the year. This hybrid business model of brick and mortar and online sales will continue for us in years to come. 

Owning a women-owned business faces many challenges in itself, let alone also going through a global pandemic, so we appreciate our customers who continue to visit and support us. Like others, our business is helping break down gender barriers in our industry, with every purchase going towards the 15 wonderful employees in our shops, as well as supporting the many female-owned businesses that we buy our products from.

There are amazing women all over the world that are crushing stereotypes and making instrumental breakthroughs in all industries, allowing there to be a better future for women to come. What can you do to contribute to this movement? Support women-owned businesses with your buying power and with your voices. We are proud to not only introduce more women into the coffee industry, but to also support strong women and help lift up others. 

Hannah Ulbrich is the Owner of Copper Door Coffee Roasters.

Empowered Women Empower Women: How to be a female leader

“So, who’s your boss?” I’ve been asked this question countless times, but the facts are that I founded my own company and currently hold the title of CEO; I work in a male-dominated industry, I have no boss and I am not alone. There are many female CEOs, founders and business leaders who, like me, do not play second fiddle to a male counterpart. But as the numbers show, we are in the minority.

A recent Wall Street Journal article pointed out that although women earn more college degrees than men and represent about half the workforce, very few are in the role of CEO. According to the article, “Women today lead 167 of the country’s top 3,000 companies. That’s more than double the share a decade ago, but still under 6%.”

Furthermore, the Center for American Progress says that women hold only between 5 and 20 percent of top leadership positions in the fields of medicine, law and corporate business. Why is there such a disparity between our level of education and our professional success?

In my experience, limits to professional success are exemplified by that original question, “Who is your boss?” This assumption that we, as women, aren’t expected to hold the leadership role. The question has a powerful underlying message: “You are not enough.”

I’ll be the first to admit that I had to learn, through a very difficult process of addiction recovery, that I was capable enough to be my own boss and to lead and empower others. Through the recovery process, I learned the limits of my pain threshold. I learned coping skills. I learned my own inner strength. I’m not saying that everyone needs to experience a personal struggle to find their inner strength, but the lessons I learned through that struggle were invaluable to me.

These lessons allowed me to start a company focused on addressing the unique challenges women face in their recovery journeys and continue to be important to my survival as a businesswoman in a male-dominated, highly scrutinized industry.

Through my personal wellness journey, I adopted a few mantras that have allowed me to become the successful businesswoman I am today. Instead of living with self-doubt and questioning whether I am enough, I know that I am worthy of that CEO title. I know I can stand up to those who assume there is a man at the helm of my company. I believe that these mantras are important for all female business leaders to live by, and further, are ideas that we should share with one another. These mantras are:

  • You are what you believe. Any woman can achieve what she wants when she puts her mind to it. If we believe we can earn that promotion or CEO role, go back to school, raise our kids, or make the necessary changes to lead a healthy life, then we will. If we encounter obstacles, we can overcome if we believe we can.
  • All women are created equal in their innate strength. Let us remind ourselves that we are strong enough, we are smart enough and that we can be leaders in business, in medicine, in law, in the arts, in whatever field we want to pursue.
  • Empowered women empower women. As female business leaders, we have a duty to lift up the women around us. Let us all empower each other to succeed. Empowerment is contagious, if we tell those around us that they can achieve their dreams, then they will.

For those of us women who have achieved a leadership position, we have a responsibility to the other women around us. Let us share our journeys, our expertise and be role models to other women. If we remind each other of our capabilities and unique female strengths, we can all achieve more. Let us share our strength and lift each other up. My dream is that our daughters aren’t asked the question, “So, who’s your boss?”

Read more about Holly Wilson and her journey to entrepreneurship.