Conference in USA
3rd-11th November 2000
25 IFW members participated in the Conference. We held several meetings with leaders and representatives of businesswomen's organisations in Boston, New York and Washington. The trip was partly financed by S. Batory Foundation.
In Boston we met Candide Brush, professor of School of Management at the Boston University, director of the Centre for Women's Entrepreneurship and Leadership, who gave a lecture titled "Entrepreneurship 2000: Is Gender a Problem?". Answering the title question, Candida Brush said 3xYES:
- gender is a problem for women entrepreneurs regarding challenges provided by technological development,
- gender is a problem for theories and researches as they rarely consider women's issues,
- gender is a problem regarding social policy as long as we meet unequal treatment of women and men in the society.
In the Polish Consulate, New York, we participated in a very interesting meeting with 12 female representatives of Polish community businesses and media. The media was represented by two local Polish TV stations, radio and three newspapers. All of them were very interested in the International Forum for Women, in the purpose of our visit to the USA and the situation of Polish female entrepreneurs in Poland.
In Washington we met the representatives of three organisations working for the women's entrepreneurship: Julie Weeks - Director of National Foundation for Women Business Owners, Beth Cole of Women's Business Centre and Debra Hickerson of National Association of Women Business Owners. The meeting gave us some insights into activities taken up in the USA for supporting women's entrepreneurship (including the governmental activity within the frames of Small Business Administration, together with co-financing women's business centres activity). Julie Weeks presented the results of research done by her Foundation in the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Russia and the USA. The comparative research showed that women entrepreneurs are generally well-educated, middle-aged (35-54 years old). The differences are in the field of access to capital, computer and the Internet. These discrepancies result from different economic and political backgrounds in the given countries.
The meetings we participated in contributed to information sharing and to establishing close business contacts, boosting our self-esteem and realizing the vastness of our potential. International Forum for Women as an organisation promoting entrepreneurship among women has been noticed in the USA and thus got an opportunity to develop its international activity.
We are grateful to S. Batory Foundation for co-funding the trip for our members!