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I am a writer and executive administrator for Trusted Clothes, which is an ethical and sustainable fashion organization. The following is a series devoted in honor of the work done in collaboration with the Schroeckers and the Trusted Clothes team. Part 3. Part 1 here. Part 2 here.
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Any advice for new mothers, or parents in general?
Find a way that it all works together. My kids have always been a part of my business. So, they’re right there with me in it. I have seen some parents keep their kids out of the business. I don’t think that’s good. I grew up in a long family of entrepreneurs.
We grew up talking business around the dinner table. That’s what made it so easy to be drawn into entrepreneurism myself. I think having it as part of the family culture is great. When there’s trips and trade shows, you can figure out a way to bring the kids along as well.
What are some of the things that can be done on the international stage to improve the lot of women? You noted some of the things in the Kickstarter campaign video. Some things that are concrete.
I think Bolivia has pulled ahead in that. They re-did their constitution in 2009. In the Spanish language, everything has a masculine and feminine with the adjective forms. Instead of saying, “All People,” like in the United States with equal opportunity. In Bolivia, they spelled it out, “Men and women are equal.” Men and women, by doing that, they created a tremendous amount of recognition of the woman’s role. Now, they look at both.
In the USA, we haven’t had that happen, yet. I have been around working with mentorship groups. You probably know the criticism of Silicon Valley is the amount of men that are out there as entrepreneurs right now.
I think it’s not so intentional. Guys saying, “We are going to have a club and not invite women.” It needs to be mindful of needing women there. The mentorship group that I have been working with, Valley Mentorship. It is on their radar, where they are intentionally looking for ways to be more attractive and accessible to women.
I think that’s what Bolivia has been doing already within their constitution by being mindful of gender on both levels. I think that’s something that can be done, but it is being mindful of where are the women in the room. Or, do we have the same amount of women as men in this conversation?
What is keeping the women away? We need a space for them because they can bring things into here. We don’t know.
In America, there’s a lag time between law changes and cultural changes. One of the most prominent is the Emancipation Proclamation. It takes a century for the Civil Rights movement to follow this law in the culture. The inertia of history is a factor. Blacks, Native Americans, women, and white men without property didn’t have the right to vote for a long time. In a democratic system such as the American, that defines an individual, as a member of a collective (gender, ethnicity, and so on), as a non-citizen, or, more properly, a non-person. To your point about including men and women in the constitution of Bolivia, there seem to be lag times in America due to historical baggage in some ways. That might explain the “behind” part for America.
Yea, it is still 2-to-1 men to women with new enterprises coming forward. For every woman, there’s two men that have started that enterprise. That’s current data. There’s something that’s keeping us out of the entrepreneurship. Having that diversity, right? There’s the gender diversity, ethnic diversity.
With entrepreneurism, if you’re starting a new business, it’s easy to be thinking of yourself. I think looking for that diversity on the front sign is good at shaping a new business and bringing in creativity.
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Original publication on www.trustedclothes.com.
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