Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Let our girls rule the business world
We may be living in a new “woke” world, but women and girls are still struggling to see themselves as business leaders.
Rewind 15 years and I was on the first series of The Apprentice, a groundbreaking show where viewers started to realise, wow, women can be as good as men in the boardroom. If not better.
And The Apprentice saw a massive surge in people setting up their own businesses too, from the dot.com mavericks to the whole “mumpreneur” movement.
It all sounds great, yet here we are in 2020 and most kids – and their parents – still naturally presume it’s men with all the brains and business know-how.
I just helped out with some research on this subject and, as a woman running her own business and as the mother of a daughter, I made some depressing discoveries. Only two in 10 children in high school could name ANY women who had set up their own companies.
So they had no clue about Jo Malone, who sold her fragrance and candle business for undisclosed millions. Or Estée Lauder. Or Sahar Hashemi, who set up the first coffee chain, a certain Coffee Republic.
Or even Victoria Beckham, who launched her fashion and beauty brand and is now worth millions.
Zac with César
Victoria
And 11 to 18-year-olds were more likely to think of a man when it came to making money and being bold enough to build a company.
More than six out of 10 young girls said they have never even considered starting up their own business. We can’t blame them. They have been programmed into thinking this way.
When we see successful women, whether they are on social media, TV or in magazines, the focus is still on their clothes and their hair or their make-up and their weight. Not on their talent, skills or business sense. But we should be championing these women and making them true role models.
We need to give our young girls the confidence to believe they can have their own business – and the country will be better for it too.
It is thought up to £250billion could be added to our economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as UK men.
Imagine that? If girls just had a bit more faith in themselves and their ability to start and run their own business.
And their parents made them feel like they could do it.
Like it was normal thing to do.
Our kids need to know that when it comes to being your own boss, there is no gender divide.
Now that would be woke.
Kids must learn boys don’t have all the know-how
Cynthia, inset, in viral vid