Point A to B

Point A to B 

Points of Interest. Shortest Point. Get the Point.

post by Tina Crouse
President, WIL Ottawa 

Photo: Authentic Parenting

Funny How We Changed the Rules By Picking Up Our Toys and Going Home

The business world is full of criticisms of women: we don’t go after capital or go into debt; we don’t stay at our post (we actually take maternity leave and don’t come back); we don’t play the game. Yep, heard it before; men’s rules and the demand that we follow them. But with the uptick in female-led businesses exploding all over the world and people coming to realize the value of having women AND men work together and the positive impact on the bottom line, well, I’d say the rules are changing. Finally.

Interestingly, these changing rules are spreading, even into places that are considered sacrosanct like investment.  So while I stated that women don’t go after investment, there is a new kind on offer, the type that comes with understanding, mentoring, coaching, SYMPATHY and yes, money. Women held out for the good stuff and it’s arrived (see Forbes article Accelerate Women Now )

I like this shift. Those old rules weren’t made for us; they didn’t make sense and they made us uncomfortable, so a lot of us wouldn’t play and sure enough, the other team got tired of playing by themselves. Now this is not to say that all the other players are on onboard; many like the old game where they made the rules and got to win most of the time. We also have to remember that there were a lot of women who had to change sides and learn the game inside out in order to succeed within those rules. Luckily, those women then decided to help the rest of us. And, here we are.

STATS  

• Over the last 20 years, Canada has seen a 200-percent increase in the number of women-owned firms. 
• In 2001, nearly half (47 percent) of all small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Canada had at least one female owner 
• Firms with at least one female owner employed 2.6 million people producing annual commercial revenues of $72 billion.  

I say, ‘Let’s Keep Going’. Why not? We’re finally rounding 3^rd and we’ve got 2 more on base: our daughters and our sisters. Surely, we’ll win the game this time.