We Can Do It!
On November 4th, the Minister of Labour and Minister of Status of Women, Dr. K. Kellie, revealed a government-supported project that “aims to increase economic opportunities for women in Canada” (Thomas, 2013). The project includes the Canadian federal government promising $500,000 in order to create more economic opportunities for female entrepreneurs. It aims to cut off the systematic barriers that lead to under-representation of women-led companies in Canada (Thomas, 2013). With the help of this project, the government wants to not only foster supplier diversity, but also increase corporate support of female entrepreneurs. This initiative is currently under the responsibility of WeConnect Canada, which is an organization supporting female business owners. After hearing the news about the federal government’s pledge, president of WeConnect Canada, Mary Anderson, stated, “We are very pleased to partner with the Government of Canada for this project that will help more Canadian women succeed as entrepreneurs”. Since 2007, over $46 million has been approved through the Women’s Program for initiatives that support economic security and prosperity for businesswomen (Thomas, 2013).
As an aspiring female entrepreneur, I’m pleased to read about this recent pledge by the federal government. Although some may argue that women-led businesses are treated equal to their male counterparts, I disagree. I don’t believe that men explicitly discriminate against women in the corporate world, but women do have less opportunities. For females, taking the great “entrepreneurial leap” is tough. Women are taught the importance of having children and creating a family from childhood. Therefore, women who seek to become entrepreneurs find it hard to go against conforming to the stereotypical lifestyle of what a woman should be. It isn’t easy juggling a CEO position and motherhood, and I believe that this is the main reason why females tend not to choose entrepreneurship as a career. However, with the help of this government pledge, and other initiatives that aim to foster women-led businesses, the career does have the potential to grow. To all of the aspiring female entrepreneurs across Canada: We can do it!
References
http://www.techvibes.com/blog/increase-opportunities-for-canadian-women-entrepreneurs-2013-11-04
http://www.weconnectcanada.org/
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/We_Can_Do_It!.jpg
