Times Are Changing for Woman Entrepreneurs

Written by Dr. Pirjo Friedman D.D.S.


Althoughrepparttar definition of an entrepreneur, “One who undertakes to conduct an enterprise assuming full control and risk.” is not gender specific, it is no wonder that most entrepreneurs are men. Because women tend to undertakerepparttar 130187 greater share of raising children and keepingrepparttar 130188 house together, many women simply do not haverepparttar 130189 time to start a business! As a woman entrepreneur, andrepparttar 130190 current President ofrepparttar 130191 Women Entrepreneurs of Canada, (WEC), I have hadrepparttar 130192 opportunity to take a close look atrepparttar 130193 issues that female business owners face. At a recent international women’s conference in Glasgow,repparttar 130194 Bank of Scotland presented some of its research. According torepparttar 130195 bank, women business owners tend to: • under-capitalize their businesses at startup; • have a disinclination to use debt finance and to be more risk averse than their male counterparts; • use a higher proportion of their personal savings within their business, both at startup and development; • be less confident than men about their knowledge and understanding of financial products and services. …all of which can impact on financing and growing their businesses. This may be exacerbated byrepparttar 130196 banks’ historical unwillingness to treat their female business customers inrepparttar 130197 same manner as male customers. Women owned businesses tend to be more service oriented and therefore have less equity than male owned businesses—another reason banks can be skeptical. Financing is crucial to all commerce, and perhaps managing money is most critical among small businesses, whether atrepparttar 130198 start or when expanding. The struggle to maintain adequate cashflow is constant among entrepreneurs. Is it any surprise then, that financial worry isrepparttar 130199 most prevalent cause of stress and insomnia! With women generating forty percent of new start-ups, and one-third of self-employed proprietorships in Canada owned or led by women, women entrepreneurs have increased by more than two hundred per cent inrepparttar 130200 last twenty years. As a result, women are seeking more opportunities to grow their network and enhance their support systems.

Women and Self Esteem

Written by Maggie Vlazny, MSW


What do you like about yourself? Are you proud of yourself? If these questions make you feel uncomfortable, or you cannot answer them, chances are that you have a problem with self esteem. Why is that? Why do so many of us basically dislike ourselves? Why are we embarrassed to "esteem" ourselves? Before answering this question, we must first define self-esteem. Self esteem comes fromrepparttar inside out. It means that a woman is not dependent upon anyone else to make her feel good about herself, because she already knows she's fine justrepparttar 130184 way she is. She is confident and aware of her strengths and abilities. She wants to share them with others. This does not mean she os conceited. She is also aware of areas needing work and growth. But that's ok, because she knows she's not perfect, and she doesn't have to be. No one is. She understands that we all have our strengths and weaknesses. Self-esteem is a core identity issue, essential to personal validation and our ability to experience joy. Once achieved, it comes fromrepparttar 130185 inside out. But it is assaulted or stunted fromrepparttar 130186 outside in. A woman with low self-esteem does not feel good about herself because she has absorbed negative messages about women fromrepparttar 130187 culture and/or relationships. The reign of youth, beauty and thinness in our society dooms every woman to eventual failure. Women's magazines, starting withrepparttar 130188 teenage market, program them to focus all their efforts on their appearance. Many girls learn, by age 12, to drop formerly enjoyable activities in favor ofrepparttar 130189 beauty treadmill leading to nowhere. They become fanatical about diets. They munch, like rabbits, on leaves without salad dressing, jog in ice storms, and swear they love it! Ads abound for cosmetic surgery, enticing us to "repair" our aging bodies, as ifrepparttar 130190 natural process of aging were an accident or a disease. Yet with all this effort, they still never feel like they are good enough. How can they? Magazine models are airbrushed to perfection, and anorexic. "Beautiful" movie stars are whipped into perfect shape by personal trainers, and use surgery to create an unnatural cultural ideal. But youth cannot last. It is not meant to. If women buy into this image of beauty, thenrepparttar 130191 best an older woman can strive for is looking "good for her age" or worse yet, "well preserved". Mummies are well preserved. Mummies are also dead. Abusive experiences join with cultural messages to assault female self esteem. Abuse is pervasive and cuts across all socioeconomic lines. It invariably sendsrepparttar 130192 message thatrepparttar 130193 victim is worthless. Many, many women have told me that verbal abuse has hurt them far more than any physical act. As one woman put it, "his words scarred my soul". Women whose abuse started as children haverepparttar 130194 most fragile sense of identity and self worth.

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