15 Inspiring Stories for Women’s Entrepreneurship Day

Today we’re officially celebrating Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. But women entrepreneurs are celebrated every day at Babson.

Launched in 2013, Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (WED) “works globally to empower women and girls to become active participants in the economy by igniting a network of women leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs to initiate startups, drive economic expansion, and advance communities around the world.”

The WED call to action echoes Babson’s emphasis on advancing women-led entrepreneurship, a critical component of the College’s strategy as it moves into its second century. We’re focused on increasing women entrepreneurs’ capacity to start and scale new ventures so that economies reach their full potential and more women and children can be lifted out of poverty.

One way Babson is preparing women to lead the world: The Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (CWEL), which empowers women leaders through educational programs, events, and research while also promoting gender equity as a growth strategy that allows all individuals and organizations around the world to embrace their strengths and reach their full potential. CWEL is home to Women Innovating Now (WIN) Lab^®, a five-month program designed specifically for women entrepreneurs that accelerates their entrepreneurial paths.

To celebrate WED, here are some recent stories from CWEL, the WIN Lab^®, and our community.

Women Entrepreneurs in Action

• Breaking Down Language Barriers with Entrada ESL: Social entrepreneur Erin Janklow MBA’14, founder of Entrada ESL, is working with companies such as Rent the Runway, Vail Resorts, and the National Domestic Workers Alliance to teach English as a second language to laborers.
• A Conversation with Tory Burch: From the Babson archives, this interview with entrepreneur Tory Burch gives readers some insight into the career journey of the famed designer.
• Supporting Black Entrepreneurs with Official Black Wall Street: Starting a successful new venture is usually birthed from a strong need or desire to change something for the better. Mandy Bowman ’12 shares her inspiration for founding Official Black Wall Street.
• How One Founder Transformed Her Pitch and Found Her Voice: Research from a Babson professor led entrepreneur Susan Perry to reevaluate how she pitches her business and adopt a bolder, more assertive approach.
• For the Mayor of Parkland, Entrepreneurship Makes All the Difference: You don’t need to found a business to be an entrepreneur. Just ask Christine Hunschofsky MBA’96, mayor of Parkland, Fla., who uses her entrepreneurial mindset to bust down government silos.

Advice for Entrepreneurial Women

• Female Entrepreneurs on the Art of the Technology Pitch: Meet three female entrepreneurs who are pros at successfully pitching their technology to investors.
• Care.com’s Sheila Lirio Marcelo’s Advice for Entrepreneurial Women: Another one from the archives, here Care.com founder Sheila Lirio Marcelo shares her path to entrepreneurship, her experiences as a female founder, and her advice for fellow women entrepreneurs.
• The Startup World Needs More Women-Led Unicorns: How do we raise the number of women-led unicorn successes? Leaders from Babson’s WIN Lab weigh in.
• How She Built This: Female founders share four pieces of advice for early-stage entrepreneurs.
• Linda Rottenberg’s Advice: Go Crazy on Your Idea: Linda Rottenberg has a message for aspiring entrepreneurs: If people aren’t calling you crazy, you aren’t dreaming big enough.

Relevant Research

• Women at Work: Researchers are keenly interested in figuring out how to take the best of women’s experiences in the workplace and using the lessons learned to help level the playing field. Check out some of the most recent research findings from Babson College faculty about how to help women reach their full potential.
• Women Entrepreneurs Underestimate Themselves. What Can We Do About It?: More than 200 million women across the world are starting and running new businesses, but research shows women tend to underestimate their professional abilities and performance. How can we fix it? CWEL’s executive director, Susan Duffy, weighs in.
• Breaking Down the Pillars of Self-Efficacy: Part IV in a series about self-efficacy, this piece investigates how women can overcome a deficit in self-efficacy and accomplish entrepreneurial goals by starting with small, achievable projects.
• Demystifying Gender and Risk: Research on risk taking in the financial markets has presented a problematic mythology, where women are the calming force tasked with “reigning in” or “cleaning up” after the wild testosterone-fueled binges that have led to financial crises across the globe.
• Investors Punish Entrepreneurs for Stereotypically Feminine Behavior: While we often assume women entrepreneurs are discriminated against simply for being women, Babson Assistant Professor Lakshmi Balachandra’s research shows that they’re actually penalized for exhibiting stereotypically feminine traits.

Posted in Community

Tagged Research, Startups, Women's Leadership

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