The Mumpreneur Debate: Entrepreneur and Childless By Choice
If you have mixed feelings about being called a mumpreneur, you’re not alone. While the Mumpreneur Movement is a great way to let other mothers know that entrepreneurship is open to them too, there has been criticism that there is no need to flag up whether a woman is a parent or not. If she is a great entrepreneur, she should be applauded for that, regardless of what she does at home.
One the other hand, there is a purpose to promoting events for parents in business in particular. Most business events don’t take into account school and nursery hours. Networking over breakfast can be impossible if you have a family to get dressed, fed and delivered to school. And events that go on past nursery or school pick up time take an enormous amount of rearranging to attend.
But have you thought about how the Mumpreneur Movement appears to someone without children? I know when I worked on a magazine there was a certain amount of division between those with kids, who needed to leave promptly and take time off over school holidays, and those without kids who felt like they often got left to carry the can. I’ve just been reading an article from an Australian entrepreneur who is angry because her, “achievements as a female entrepreneur were downplayed because I don’t have children.” You can read her whole article here.
I feel the crux of the matter is, if we really want to get away from “Isn’t she amazing to do all that AND have children”, we need to seriously even up who takes lead responsibility for childcare. That means a revision of everything from maternity and paternity leave through to work cultures that discourage men from taking leave. Glass ceilings need to be smashed so women get a chance to progress their careers. And pay for part time work needs to proportionately match full time pay. It is only in this way that men and women will get an equal chance and a real choice about the way they work. And only then can we stop saying that mumpreneurs are amazing.
I’ve made no secret of feeling divided by the term which straddles a fine line between celebration and condescending, often because with some people it’s misused which then feeds into creating the wrong image. I really empathise with her, because fair enough that she didn’t win but to then find herself sitting there in a generalised atmosphere with them championing mothers whilst she sits there childless must have been quite the slap in the face. You’re right that these things need to happen although they should have happened already which then begs the question of what happens now as judging by the pace so far, it won’t be happening immediately. However that crassness didn’t happen neccessarily because of those things – more because they didn’t understand their own audience and were feeding into stereotypes, alienating some of the very people they’d invited.
Dear Antonia
I’ve been thinking about these issues a lot as I’ve had a few tweets and read a few blog posts by men saying they find women only networking events discriminatory. I think the argument in favour of having women-only events is that women are under-represented in business and as entrepreneurs and so need some events targeted at them to help redress the balance. According to http://www.europeanpwn.net for example only one out of ten board members in Europe is female:
“The top 300 European companies now have 9.7% of women on their boards, up from 8.5% in 2006 and 8% in 2004″
According to Everywoman UK’s 10th Anniversary Manifesto:
“The statistics surrounding women on FTSE 350 boards are even more depressing, currently a mere 242 of 29,742 board positions are held by women, the majority of which are non-executive positions.”
And women lose out in terms of pay, look at the figures from the Fawcett Society (http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/):
“The Equal Pay Act was passed nearly 40 years ago, yet women are still paid less than men. The full-time gender pay gap is 17%, while the part-time pay gap is a staggering 36%.” The situation worsens if women have children.
As you point out, a lot of business events are targeted at people without childcare commitments (not necessarily men only!) and breakfast meetings and early evening meetings (not to mention 9-5 workshops for those of us who pick up children after school) are not accessible to women. One thing I really liked about the Mumpreneurs Meetup I arranged was that women were able to bring toddlers and babies. Business link once put on an event for women that had a creche, which was such a change, and I do think that events that recognise the realities faced by women with small children are really needed right now.
Let’s hope that society will eventually change to make life a bit easier for working women, mums or not!
I think there are two issues here, one relating to working mums that are in the workplace hitting glass ceilings and the other is regarding entrepreneur mums that have started their own businesses, since having a child.
Call me cynical but glass ceilings are going to be around for a while. Hence the reason I gave up a successful marketing career to do my own thing after I had my daughter. BUT, look at all the successful “mumpreneurs” there are around right now.
Whilst I’m not keen on the title “mumpreneur”, it does connect you with other “mumpreneurs” out there. I think this is essential as you know everyone is in the same boat, facing similar issues: trying to look after our children, ours homes and sometimes our husbands, as well our businesses etc, etc. Networking with other mums in business has been invaluable for me, I have been able to make good contacts, brainstorm and have an excellent support network too.
thanks for the thoughtful comments.
Nat, yes, these things should have ha[ppened already and it is hard to know how to force through such a change in mentality.
It’s good to read the stats Tabitha: it does put the issue in context.
Janine – it is interesting to hear the reason behind your decision to go it alone.
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