The End of Men? I certainly hope not, but responsibility has to be taken for where we’re at right now…
Reading through Tony Featherstone’s article “The Planet of Women” this morning in TheAge.com (which is well worth reading I might add), he brought this to my attention…
As reported in the July/August 2010 ATLANTIC MAGAZINE…
Earlier this year, women became the majority of the workforce for the first time in U.S. history. Most managers are now women too. And for every two men who get a college degree this year, three women will do the same. For years, women’s progress has been cast as a struggle for equality. But what if equality isn’t the end point? What if modern, postindustrial society is simply better suited to women? A report on the unprecedented role reversal now under way— and its vast cultural consequences… read on
What if modern, postindustrial society needs to be remoulded to suit the Lifestyle that women aspire to, and that men will also definitely benefit from?
What if all considerations of Life were treated equally as importantly, without there being the lop-sided tilt towards work as it is now?
What if all the entrepreneurial mothers, who have left work as we know it to pursue their own version of what that Life needs to look like, were encouraged to return to the corporate jungle to re-vegetate and re-establish the equilibrium?
Replacing women with men will not be the entire answer, we know that. But to keep doing things as we have always done them will not rectify the straining issues right now either. At least the conversation has started…
Hazel Hawke’s Vital Role in Bob Hawke’s Success…
I was really pleased to see this article in TheAge this morning. Not only does it give another side to the “love story”, it also shows Hazel to be a prime example of an entrepreneurial mother, even when in a relationship. She did amazing things with the opportunities she had, and that’s all one can DO. Hats off to Hazel…
…It did not take long for Hazel to develop a following of her own – which in subsequent elections became a major reason voters supported Hawke. Hazel’s speech to the National Press Gallery in January 1984 established her as an unassuming, disarmingly honest, sincere and intelligent human being – an ordinary woman, one we could all identify with and admire for the way she handled herself.
There was a strong feeling among women that if Hazel stayed with Bob, he couldn’t be as bad as reports suggested.
In an interview on Sunday following the telemovie, Hawke struggled to remember what Hazel’s interests were as the prime minister’s wife. He came up with ”education”, but he could not remember any details.
Children, their welfare and the arts were Hazel’s priorities. Among other organisations, the Brotherhood of St Laurence, Austcare, the Australian Youth Orchestra, the NSW Heritage Council, World Wide Fund for Nature and the Australian Children’s Television Foundation had Hazel’s support. This meant she worked for them; she was not just a figurehead… keep reading
a good mother is someone always with their children…says who?
A most interesting article in TheAge this morning by Jacinta Tynan, (even if it is called “Rebecca Gibney and other mums on juggling work after baby“) discussing the whys and wherefores of working mothers and part-time jobs etc, and the new Australian legislation that came in earlier this year.
Apart from the fact that I don’t get the whole juggling thing! I know, call me crazy, but what’s with the juggle?…the key line in the article for me is the following…
…Part of the problem, Broderick says, is that most Australians have a deeply held cultural belief that a good mother is someone who is always with her children. “When you bring that belief into the workplace, it’s no wonder we are where we are.”… read on
I’m not sure I agree with this… do you?
I for one know that I am a much better mother because of what I do outside our 2-person family unit. And have always espoused this very viewpoint, so am I one of the only one’s?
I really do hope not.
the world’s richest self-made women…
now this is an interesting article in TheAge.com this morning…
…in 1998 Meg Whitman took a leap of faith and accepted a job as chief executive of eBay, then a small tech firm with 30 employees. The payoff was equity in the burgeoning company.
Thanks to that decision, Whitman soon joined the ranks of the 1011 billionaires in the world. Rarer still, she’s one of just 14 female billionaires in the world right now who earned their fortunes, rather than inherited them. The richest of them is China’s Wu Yajun, worth $3.9 billion and ranked 232nd in the world in March when we published our 2010 Billionaires list. By contrast, 665 men are self-made billionaires including the three richest people in the world, Carlos Slim Helú , Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
All of these self-made female billionaires have impressive personal stories, but the dearth of them is itself a story, and begs the question of why so few?
read on…
This is a most eye-opening read. Not only because of the low representation of self-made women billionaires (2%) but because they are there at all. I suspect this is a fairly recent phenomenon, and one which will/can only improve over time. The key of course is building such a Mother of a Business, as well as being the Mother you long to be…especially if I have anything to do with it!
I’m one of only 3% of $1mil revenue+ Women-Owned Businesses…whoa!
I’m one of only 3% of $1mil revenue + women-owned businesses. How’s that? Isn’t that amazing! Actually, that places me in rather exclusive, but fairly lonely, territory really. How do I know this? SHARON G. HADARY for the Wall Street Journal shares some great insights with her latest article “Why Are Women-Owned Firms Smaller Than Men-Owned Ones?”. (The statistics come from this article also.)
The phenomenal growth of women-owned businesses has made headlines for three decades—women consistently have been launching new enterprises at twice the rate of men, and their growth rates of employment and revenue have outpaced the economy.
So, it is dismaying to see that, despite all this progress, on average, women-owned business are still small compared with businesses owned by men. And while the gap has narrowed, as of 2008—the latest year for which numbers are available—the average revenues of majority women-owned businesses were still only 27% of the average of majority men-owned businesses.
While the number of women starting their own business outpaces men, revenue for female owned companies still lags behind. Hear Sharon Hadary, Former Executive Director and Founder of the Center for Women’s Business Research, discuss this trend and what women can do to improve their prospects.
There are those who will say that these numbers substantiate what they always knew: Women just don’t have what it takes to start and run a substantial, growing business. But I don’t buy that: More than a quarter of a million women in the U.S. own and lead businesses with annual revenue topping $1 million—and many of these businesses are multimillion-dollar enterprises. Clearly, many women have the vision, capacity and perseverance to build thriving companies.
So what’s holding back so many women business owners?
continue…
Nothing as far as I’m concerned.
To find out how I’ve done it, and continue to do so, I invite you visit www.theentrepreneurialmother.com
How the Black Saturday bushfires changed my experience of Change…
Ever doubted if your approach delivering the results you anticipated? After surviving the Victorian “Black Saturday” bushfires of February 2009, aCE talentNET consultant Karen Curnowreflects on how she chose to cope with this truly life-changing event and the lessons and reminders it offers to all of us involved in managing change…
…I’m not advocating that everyone should think and feel as I do but I am suggesting that this is what worked for me and that how I chose to think about and feel about this sudden, abrupt change in my life deeply shaped my recovery and influenced the subsequent choices I made about my life. Many months later, it has also caused me to reflect on my previous work in organisational change management and to wonder how I could ever have imagined that I could manage anyone else’s change.
To be clear, I haven’t suddenly decided that all forms of organisational change management no longer work. I just believe that in many cases we get the emphasis wrong… keep reading, it’s worth it.
You can have it all, just not all at once…
not sure I agree with all of this… but each to their own
well worth sharing nonetheless
…The real “unfinished business of the feminist movement”, says Phillips, is flexible work patterns for men as well as women, so dads can take on the role of full-time carers.
Without the involvement of men – the ones who run companies, the ones who lead the country and the ones we live with – the lot of women will not improve….
10 tips for Mums Who run Businesses
Being a Mom and running a business is like having two full-time jobs. Inc.com asked women who do it for their advice on how to juggle running a family while building a business…
Katherine Reynolds Lewis, founder of CurrentMom.com (who I used to write Travel Tuesday for) was happy to oblige with the 10 tips…
great work!
JK Rowlings… now there’s an entrepreneurial mother
even if she didn’t realise it at the time…
as JK tells it…
An easy life? Between 1993 and 1997 I did the job of two parents, qualified and then worked as a secondary school teacher, wrote one and a half novels and did the planning for a further five. For a while, I was clinically depressed. To be told, over and over again, that I was feckless, lazy — even immoral — did not help.
Is this resonating with you?
It did me, hence why I’ve blogged about it.
The fact remains that the first time I ever met my recently retired accountant, he put it to me point-blank: would I organise my money around my life, or my life around my money?
What a great question.
Seriously think about that one, and if you can truly answer it to your satisfaction, then good on you. This in some respects in the essence of being an entrepreneurial mother…
JK, if I ever get to meet you, I’ll certainly thank you for sharing on this gem of wisdom.
Whilst the bulk of the article is politically driven, it’s worth a read it you want to understand some of the finer detail around the UK system of “benefits”. My hope is that you don’t know it, or any variation, to intimately. Or if you do, now might just be the time to start your own entrepreneurial mother journey…
Want to know more? here’s where to go
http://www.theentrepreneurialmother.com
Shift Presentation Secrets with Joanna Martin
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of spending the entire day with Dr. Joanna Martin and her team. What a day…
Yes, that’s me with her loveliness!
What makes this 1 day event so valuable is that you learn skills and strategies that will not only make you a better speaker, but a more profitable and successful business owner.
I am able to use the lessons from the day either to enhance my current presentations, or to develop new presentations that are brilliant, smooth, professional, polished, fascinating and that will make you a lot of money.
I also learned how to use seminars or small group presentations to massively increase my sales and client retention.
This is key to Joanna creating what she affectionately describe as “The Ultimate Lifestyle Business”.
If you get a chance to spend time with Joanna, it will be time well spent I can assure you.
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