As a society, the stories that we tell, at a point in time, say a lot about who we are and what we believe. They create the zeitgeist&a;nbsp;that we look back on, and that in turn forms the age to come.
So in many ways, it is our responsibility to tell the stories that we wish to define us and our children. As we head towards &l;a href=&q;https://www.internationalwomensday.com/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;International Women&s;s Day 2019&l;/a&g;,&a;nbsp;many of us are&a;nbsp;asking ourselves, are the stories we are telling those that we wish to be remembered for?
When it comes to female empowerment through business and entrepreneurship, I think the answer is a resounding no. If you look the 21st century way for stories - so if you Google - for the word Entrepreneur, you will not see female faces. Entrepreneurial stories are predominantly male, with a male-led narrative and a masculine protagonist.&a;nbsp;Female businesses are seen as fluffy, cupcake or caring businesses, with &l;a href=&q;https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/uk-vc-female-founders-report/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;little serious investment going into them&l;/a&g; and therefore not worthy of being part of the story.
This is what we need to change - and we can change. We can decide as a&a;nbsp;culture to tell different stories - and they are all out there waiting to be told. And in many cases, they are much more interesting, full of depth, overcoming adversity and with a heroine worth cheering for.
Ahead of International Women&s;s Day, we are starting to hear these stories more from many quarters, including &l;a href=&q;http://f-entrepreneur.com/fentrepreneur-top-100/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;f:Entrepreneur&s;s 100 #ialso stories&l;/a&g; of female led businesses that are doing way more exciting and interesting things than &q;just&q; starting a business. We should not confine this to just a week in March. We should be telling these stories every day. This is what will inspire the next generation - of men and women.
&l;img class=&q;size-full wp-image-32&q; src=&q;http://blogs-images.forbes.com/michelleovens/files/2019/03/Grace-Anighoro.jpg?width=960&q; alt=&q;&q; data-height=&q;765&q; data-width=&q;765&q;&g; Grace Anighoro, Founder of Marvellous Mix Chin Chin
Take the story of Grace Anighoro. She has a fabulous business called &l;a href=&q;https://www.marvellousmix.co.uk/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;Marvellous Mix Chin Chin&l;/a&g; making pastry snacks. It is a start up that began at home and now ships much further afield. She is also a mother - a mother of a child with Osteogenesis Imperfecta - Brittle Bone Disease. Not only does she manage this on a day to day basis, but she has taken that experience to tutor other parents of children with special needs with the Department of Public Health in Greenwich. Understanding the challenges many women go through, she then went onto start the Marvellous Girls Club Ltd. This is a club for young girls and teenagers and encourages them to grow up to be confident, pursue their dreams and reach their potential. This is a business with a story worth telling.
&l;img class=&q;size-large wp-image-33&q; src=&q;http://blogs-images.forbes.com/michelleovens/files/2019/03/Clare-Talbot-Jones--1200x1200.jpg?width=960&q; alt=&q;&q; data-height=&q;1200&q; data-width=&q;1200&q;&g; Clare Talbot-Jones, Talbot Jones Risk Solutions
It is not just about&a;nbsp;snacks and caring roles, as the story of Clare Talbot-Jones from Gateshead shows us too. Running a &l;a href=&q;https://talbotjones.co.uk/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;commercial insurance broker&l;/a&g; focused on the third sector, Clare is a tech and financial services entrepreneur, but with a much richer story to tell. Recovering from serious illness, Clare came to her business with a drive to succeed and do something different. Clare is a mentor for the Millin Charity, an organisation that supports local women into self-employment. She works to remove the stigma of mental illness from the workplace and speaks at local events to promote her ethos. She has become disability confident, learnt sign language, and developed her own IP for a new piece of technology in her sector. Her story does not stop, as all the best stories do not. She continues to look for ways to benefit society and develop new business tools for herself and others.
When we look at who we are as a society,&a;nbsp;do these stories not tell us more about who we want to be? As women really come into an age where they can define their stories by their own rules, where diversity and equality means they can experience real freedom, we are seeing a wealth of phenomenal stories bubbling up from this previously un-tapped potential.
It is now our responsibility to tell more of these stories and to pass them on. This is how we ensure the businesses and generations of the future learn from and build on them. We want them to look back on this age with pride in what women have achieved and to see stories of female leadership held up equal to those of male achievement. This is equality.
These will be the stories that we will tell.&l;/p&g;
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