Women are Building Today’s Growth Markets

The Chinese proverb that “women hold up half the sky” has often been considered more aspiration than fact, in developed and developing countries alike, with persistent gender gaps in education, health, work, wages and political participation. However, with increasing focus on the growth in emerging market economies, one intriguing fact remains less discussed than most: woman are increasingly the driving human force behind the start-ups and business growth culture.

50% of Brazil’s Entrepreneurs are Women
Dell, in partnership with Ernst & Young, recently hosted a Women’s Entrepreneur Networking Event in Rio de Janeiro to recognize the significant female influence in business and technology. In conjunction with that event, they shared data concluding that more than 50% of Brazil’s entrepreneurs are women, and 15% of the population has their own business. As a nation, Brazil is now led by its first woman President, Dilma Rousseff, and has made its way onto the world stage in the last decade, currently as the world’s 7th largest economy.  By appointing women this month to two key ministries, Rousseff has also nearly met her goal of having 30 percent of women in her cabinet, and is putting women in predominant roles at the Planalto Palace, the seat of government.

Latin American Startups
This spirit is not limited to Brazil: NextWeb recently did a fantastic summary of 10 Latin American start-ups currently led by women entrepreneurs, featuring impressive leaders from across the continent building businesses in a variety of industries – it’s worth a detailed read.

10,000 Women are Only the Beginning
10,000 Women is a five-year citizenship program, with supporting investments, by Goldman Sachs (which began in March 2008) to provide 10,000 underserved women around the world with a business and management education. The strategy was to partner with a broad network of more than 70 academic and non-profit partners to develop locally relevant coursework; investing in women is considered one of the most effective ways to reduce inequality and facilitate inclusive economic growth, and investing in education for women has a significant multiplier effect, leading to more productive workers, healthier and better-educated families, and ultimately to more prosperous communities. Within their first 18 months, the program was already active in more than 20 countries, including: Afghanistan, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Rwanda & Turkey – as well as developed countries like the US and Japan.

Turkey Shows Education & Community Building Can Work
In countries like Turkey, this initiative has itself helped to foster female entrepreneurship.  Founded by one of Turkey’s most successful entrepreneurs, an academic program at Ozyegin University is now extending its message about the value of enterprise to women – one at a time.  In the first year, they accepted 27 women who were aspiring entrepreneurs, six of whom went on start their own business.  In the second year, they focused more on accepting women into the program who had already established businesses and would benefit from the business education to help take their business to the next level.  In their most recent year, 73 graduates were accepted over three cohorts, and in just the first cohort the women had 72% growth in revenues and 72% growth in employee numbers – hiring 87 new people.  Ozyegin’s program suggests this is proof that supporting women will be a solution for Turkey’s challenges, like unemployment.

It Takes an Industry
Technology remains a prime industry opportunity for female business leaders, given the rapid worldwide industry growth and comparatively low start-up costs, and strong support from large industry leaders.  Companies like Microsoft, for example, continue to place a great focus on attracting female talent, and helping to develop strong local communities of female leaders. As the result of a recent internal Microsoft contest to promote the next generation of innovators, one employee from Tunisia shared this video of the work she is leading to help transforms students’ ideas into real business solutions, through the Microsoft Innovation Centre in Tunisia.  Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg, is also a vocal advocate in this space, and recently delivered a fantastic TED Talk on “Why we have too few women leaders,” offering practical advice to men and women alike to ensure they stay focused on having an impact in life and the world.

Knowledge@Wharton: Tackling Unemployment in Turkey: Ozyegin University Nurtures Women Entrepreneurs

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 26th, 2011 at 2:54 pm. It is filed under Brazil, Management, Startups, Turkey and tagged with 10000 Women, Facebook, Goldman Sachs, Women. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.