Women entrepreneurs example not exception Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

we do not invest in victims we invest in

survivors and in ways both big and small

the narrative of the victim shapes the

way we see women you can’t count

what you don’t see and we don’t invest

in what’s invisible to us but this is

the face of resilience six years ago I

started writing about women

entrepreneurs during and after conflict

I set out to write a compelling economic

story one that had great characters that

no one else was telling and one that I

thought mattered and that turned out to

be women I had left ABC News and a

career I loved at the age of 34 Business

School a path I knew almost nothing

about none of the women I had grown up

with in Maryland had graduated from

college let alone considered Business

School but they had hustled to feed

their kids and pay their rent and I saw

from a young age than having a decent

job and earning a good living made the

biggest difference for families who were

struggling so if you’re going to talk

about jobs then you have to talk about

entrepreneurs and if you’re talking

about entrepreneurs and conflict and

post-conflict settings then you must

talk about women because they are the

population you have left Rwanda in the

immediate aftermath of the genocide was

77% female I want to introduce you to

some of those entrepreneurs I’ve met and

share with you some of what they’ve

taught me over the years I went to

Afghanistan in 2005 to work on a

Financial Times piece and there I met

Kamala a young woman who told me she had

just turned down a job with the

international community that would have

paid her nearly $2,000 a month an

astronomical sum in that context and she

had turned it down she said because she

was going to start her next business and

entrepreneurship consultancy that would

teach business skills to men and women

all around Afghanistan business she said

was critical to her country’s future

because long after this round of

internationals left

business would help keep her country’s

peaceful and secure and she said

business was even more important for

women because earning an income earned

respect and money was power for women so

I was amazed I mean here was a girl who

had never lived in peacetime who somehow

had come to sound like a candidate from

The Apprentice so I asked her how in the

world do you know this much about

business why are you so passionate she

said okay oh this is actually my third

business my first business was a dress

making business I started under the tall

bun and that was actually an excellent

business because we provided jobs for

women all around our neighborhood and

that’s really how I became an

entrepreneur think about this here were

girls who braved danger to become

breadwinners during years in which they

couldn’t even be on their streets and at

a time of economic collapse when people

sold baby dolls and shoelaces and

windows and doors just to survive these

girls made the difference between

survival and starvation for so many I

couldn’t leave the story and I couldn’t

leave the topic either because

everywhere I went I meant more of these

women who no one seemed to know about or

even wish to I went on to Bosnia and

early on in my interviews I met with an

IMF official who said you know Gail I

don’t think we actually have women in

business in Bosnia but there is a lady

selling cheese nearby on the side of the

road so maybe you could interview her so

I went out reporting and within a day I

met narcistic of as ovitch who at that

point was opening a new factory on the

Wars former frontlines in Sarajevo she

had started her business squatting in an

abandoned garage sewing sheets and

pillowcases she would take to markets

all around the city so that she could

support the 12 or 13 family members who

were counting on her for survival by the

time we met she had 20 employees most of

them women who were sending their boys

and their girls to school and she was

just the start

I met women running essential oils

businesses wineries and even the

country’s largest advertising agency so

these stories together became a Herald

Tribune business cover and putting the

story posted I ran it to my computer to

send it to the IMF of visual and I said

just in case you’re looking for

entrepreneurs to feature at your next

investment conference here are a couple

of women but think about this

the IMF official is hardly the only

person to automatically file women under

micro the biases whether intentional or

otherwise are pervasive and so are the

misleading mental images if you see the

word microfinance what comes to mind

most people say women and if you see the

word entrepreneur

most people think men why is that

because we aim low and we think small

when it comes to women microfinance is

an incredibly powerful tool that leads

to self-sufficiency and self-respect but

we must move beyond micro hopes and

micro ambitions for women because they

have so much greater hopes for

themselves they want to move from micro

to medium and beyond and in many places

they’re there in the u.s. women-owned

businesses will create five and a half

million new jobs by 2018 and South Korea

and Indonesia women owned nearly half a

million firms China women run 20% of all

small businesses and in the developing

world overall that figures 40 to 50

percent nearly everywhere I go I mean

incredibly interesting entrepreneurs who

are seeking access to finance access to

markets and established business

networks they are often ignored because

they’re harder to help it is much

riskier to give a $50,000 loan than it

is to give a $500 loan and as the World

Bank recently noted women are stuck in a

Productivity trap those and small

businesses can’t get the capital they

need to expand and those in micro

businesses can’t grow out of them

recently I was at the State Department

in Washington and I met an incredibly

passionate entrepreneur from Ghana

she sells chocolates and she had come to

Washington not seeking a handout and not

seeking a micro loan she had come

seeking serious investment dollars so

that she could build the factory and buy

the equipment she needs to export her

chocolates to Africa Europe the Middle

East and far beyond capital that would

help her to employ more than the 20

people that she already has working for

her and capital that would fuel her own

country’s economic climb the great news

is we already know what works theory and

empirical evidence have already taught

us we don’t need to invent solutions

because we have them cash flow loans

based on income rather than assets loans

that use secure contracts rather than

collateral because women often don’t own

land and kiva.org the micro lender is

actually now experimenting with

crowdsourcing small and medium sized

loans and that’s just to start

recently has become very much in fashion

to call women the emerging market of the

emerging market I think that is terrific

you know why because and I say this as

somebody who worked in finance 500

billion dollars at least has gone into

the emerging markets in the past decade

because investors saw the potential for

return at a time of slowing economic

growth and so they created financial

products and financial innovation

tailored to the emerging markets how

wonderful would it be if we were

prepared to replace all of our lofty

words with our wallets and invest five

hundred billion dollars unleashing

women’s economic potential just think of

the benefits when it comes to jobs

productivity employment child nutrition

maternal mortality literacy and much

much more because as the World Economic

Forum noted smaller gender gaps are

directly correlated with increased

economic

Hennis and not one country in all the

world has eliminated its economic

participation guess not what so the

great news is this is an incredible

opportunity we have so much room to grow

so you see this is not about doing good

this is about global growth and global

employment it is about how we invest and

it’s about how we see women and women

can no longer be both half the

population and a special interest group

oftentimes I get into very interesting

discussions with reporters who say to me

Gail great stories but you’re really

writing about the exceptions now that

makes me pause for just a couple reasons

first of all four exceptions there are a

lot of them and they’re important

secondly when we talk about men who are

succeeding we rightly consider them

icons or pioneers or innovators to be

emulated and which when we talk about

women they are either exceptions to be

dismissed or aberrations to be ignored

and finally there is no society anywhere

in all the world that has not changed

except by its most exceptional so why

wouldn’t we celebrate and elevate these

changemakers and job creators rather

than overlook them this topic of

resilience is very personal to me and in

many ways has shaped my life my mom was

a single mom who worked at the phone

company during the day and sold

Tupperware at night so that I could have

every opportunity possible we shopped

double coupons and layaway in

consignment stores and when she got sick

with Stage four breast cancer and could

no longer work we even applied for food

stamps and when I would feel sorry for

myself as nine or ten-year-old girls do

she would say to me my dear on a scale

of major world tragedies yours is not a

three

and when I was applying to business

school and felt certain I couldn’t do it

and nobody I knew had done it I went to

my aunt who survived years of beatings

at the hands of her husband and escaped

a marriage of abuse with only her

dignity intact and she told me never

import other people’s limitations and

when I complained to my grandmother a

World War two veteran who worked in film

for 50 years and who supported me from

the age of 13 that I was terrified that

if I turned down a plum assignment at

ABC for a fellowship overseas I would

never ever find another job

she said kiddo I’m gonna tell you two

things first of all no one turns down a

Fulbright and secondly McDonald’s is

always hiring you will find a job take

the leap the women in my family are not

exceptions the women in this room and

watching in LA and all around the world

are not exceptions we are not a special

interest group we are the majority and

for far too long we have underestimated

ourselves and been undervalued by others

it is time for us to aim higher when it

comes to women to invest more and to

deploy our dollars to benefit women all

around the world we can make a

difference and make a difference not

just for women but for a global economy

that desperately needs their

contributions together we can make

certain that the so called exceptions

begin to rule when we change the way we

see ourselves others will follow and it

is time for all of us

to think bigger thank you very much

you