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Journal of Education for Business
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A Place of Her Own: The Case for University-Based
Centers for Women Entrepreneurs
Mary Riebe
To cite this article: Mary Riebe (2012) A Place of Her Own: The Case for University-Based Centers for Women Entrepreneurs, Journal of Education for Business, 87:4, 241-246, DOI: 10.1080/08832323.2011.591846
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2011.591846
Published online: 29 Mar 2012.
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CopyrightC Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0883-2323 print / 1940-3356 online DOI: 10.1080/08832323.2011.591846
A Place of Her Own: The Case for University-Based
Centers for Women Entrepreneurs
Mary Riebe
Minnesota State University, Mankato, Mankato, Minnesota, USA
The author describes the benefits of university-based women entrepreneur centers as an edu-cational and outreach strategy and argues for their establishment and support by universities interested in educating women entrepreneurs and advancing women-owned businesses. Based on extensive research on women business owners and firsthand experience with two such U.S. university-based centers, the author describes their several advantages in meeting the distinctive needs of women as entrepreneurs and learners. Providing examples of and ratio-nales for the effectiveness of these programs, the author also makes a case for their potential economic development benefits for the larger economy and community and contributions to their sponsoring universities.
Keywords: education, entrepreneurs, university, women
In her famous essayA Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf (1929) argued that for their creativity to fully flourish, women need an independent income and a room of their own. Over the past 30 years, an impressive infrastructure of gender-specific public and private organizations has been developed to provide women entrepreneurs with the information, sup-port, and access to financial resources they have needed to create what is now the fastest growing segment of the econ-omy. It is estimated that there are somewhere between 9 and 10 million women-owned businesses in the country, making up approximately 40–50% of all U.S. businesses and em-ploying more than 27 million people, or more than all the Fortune 500 companies combined. Between 1997 and 2011, when the number of U.S. businesses grew by 34%, the num-ber of women-owned businesses grew by more than 50%; in 2005 alone, the number of new women-owned businesses was outpacing the number of new men-owned businesses by 2 to 1 (American Express, 2011; Center for Women’s Business Research, 2005b; Glaser, 2006; National Women’s Business Council, 2004). Thus, a case for educational opportunities designed to encourage and advance women’s entrepreneur-ship can be made on economic grounds alone.
But to build on this momentum this article argues that women entrepreneurs also need a place of their own within the nation’s universities. University-based programs and
cen-Correspondence should be addressed to Mary Riebe, 12686 Eagle Trail, Deerwood, MN 56444, USA. E-mail: casla78@aol.com
ters for women entrepreneurs are a relatively new but impor-tant addition to the educational support infrastructure for women business owners. Although their number are few and their focus and format vary, such programs undertake a range of educational, networking, and research activities aimed at undergraduate and graduate students and women learners and practitioners from the larger community. Despite the re-markable success of government-sponsored women’s busi-ness centers and allied membership organizations in open-ing opportunities for women, ample research indicates that female entrepreneurs still face prejudices and barriers spe-cific to their gender (American Express, 2011; Center for Women’s Business Research, 2001, 2005a, 2005b; Diana Project, 2004; Greene et al., 2003; Kepler & Shane, 2007). By offering a range of educational offerings that go beyond the conventional business curriculum and format to directly address the distinctive needs and barriers faced by women entrepreneurs, centers such as the two examples described below offer business educators and their institutions an ad-ditional and innovative way to advance their educational and outreach missions and contribute to the economic develop-ment and vitality of their regions.
TWO UNIVERSITY-BASED CENTERS FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
The case made here for university-sponsored centers for women entrepreneurs is based on a broad body of research on
242 M. RIEBE
women entrepreneurs and learners, as discussed below, and on the experience of two such centers founded in partnership with community organizations and corporations also inter-ested in encouraging the development and growth of women-owned businesses. The first of these, the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship (CWE) at Chatham University, was estab-lished with seed funding from the Lois Tack Thompson Fund of the Pittsburgh Foundation and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. With a target market of startup and existing women-owned businesses in the Pittsburgh area, the center’s mission is to support and develop economic empow-erment for women who own or wish to start a business, of-fering programs directed toward women-owned businesses at all stages of the business cycle. In the first three years of its operation, more than 300 women enrolled in CWE’s four major programs, and more than 16,000 women attended speaking engagements, sponsored events, and community activities sponsored by the center.
The major educational programs offered by the center included FastTrac programs, which train prospective and be-ginning women entrepreneurs to develop, evaluate, launch, and grow their businesses, and an annual “Think Big” fo-rum, which offers women business owners an opportunity to network, discuss growth strategies, learn from successful keynote speakers and panelists, and be inspired to expand their personal and professional goals. CWE offerings also included two mentoring programs: Peer-to-Peer Learning Roundtables, which provide participants an opportunity to learn successful business practices from their peers in facili-tated monthly meetings, and Mentoring for Women Business Owners, a program that matches women business owners with seasoned, successful entrepreneur mentors in the re-gion. By offering educational programs not generally avail-able within university settings, the center was avail-able to attract nontraditional and lifelong adult learners beyond those in-terested in conventional university-level business education programs.
Beyond these educational offerings, CWE’s outreach and engagement with the community included collaborations with other organizations also committed to expanding oppor-tunities for women, thereby also increasing the university’s institutional visibility and its access to new populations of po-tential learners. During its first three years, those partnerships included alliances with the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), the Women Business Network, the African American Chamber of Commerce, the Associ-ation of Women Business Centers, the NAssoci-ational FoundAssoci-ation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, the Service Corps of Retired Executives, the Women’s Economic Development Outreach Tour, and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Business Plan Al-liance. More than a dozen local businesses also cosponsored or participated in center activities, including UPS, 84 Lum-ber, First Commonwealth, and PPG. CWE participated in the Coleman Foundation and the Hughes Charitable Foundation elevator grant session at the 2007 U.S. Association for Small
Business and Entrepreneurship conference and was awarded a grant to establish a campus-wide Entrepreneurship Club for undergraduate and graduate students at Chatham. The cen-ter also engaged in outreach activities for girls, including its support for the Girl Scouts Badges to Business program that introduces girls to the world of business and, in conjunction with Hurley Associates, Guardian Life Insurance Company, and NAWBO, its hosting an annual Girls Going Places En-trepreneurship Conference to encourage middle school and high school girls to consider becoming business owners.
In addition to providing programs and building commu-nity partnerships similar to those at CWE, Metropolitan State University’s Center for Women Entrepreneurs, founded with seed money from Wells Fargo, also had the exclusive rights in Minnesota to provide Women’s Business Enterprise Na-tional Conference (WBENC) Certification, the only nation-ally recognized educational program for training and certi-fying women-owned businesses as government suppliers. It also launched the Minnesota chapter of the Women Presi-dent’s Organization (WPO), a membership support organi-zation of women presidents who have guided their businesses to at least$2 million in gross annual sales or$1 million in
services. In conjunction with the University of Minnesota’s School of Veterinary Medicine, the center also offered a Smart Growth program for women interested in operating their own veterinary clinics. In its first three years, the center served more than 250 women in its educational and men-toring programs and more than 9,000 women through its seminars and affiliated activities.
Feedback on these activities and programs at both uni-versities was overwhelmingly positive, with 80–85% of re-spondents regularly reporting that offerings had not only met but exceeded their expectations. Other measures of success included yearly growth in the number of collaborating orga-nizations and participants, a noteworthy percentage of return-ing participants, frequent referrals to friends and colleagues, and ample anecdotal reports that the knowledge and support gained from center programs had directly contributed to the growth and success of participants’ businesses. Furthermore, these programs also provided educational opportunities and support to many women entrepreneurs who were contribut-ing to the economic development of their communities but were not interested in earning a university or business degree or were operating at a scale or in industries typically not addressed by university programs.
RATIONALE FOR WOMEN-CENTERED ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
The rationale for creating entrepreneurship centers designed specifically for women is based not only on economic and institutional grounds, as significant as those are, but on con-siderable research showing that women entrepreneurs have distinctive educational needs that presently can best be met in
a women-centered environment. Although a sizable body of research over the past 30 years has found that men and women business owners are more similar to each other in personality traits than they are to the rest of working population, it has also shown that women business owners tend to think and talk about their businesses, view their leadership roles, and op-erate their businesses in ways markedly different than those of their male counterparts (Eagly & Johannesen-Schmidt, 2001; Greene et al., 2003; Weeks, 1994). In NAWBO’s words, “Women think differently, manage differently, and define success differently” (Center for Women’s Business Research, 1994, p. 1). These differences argue strongly for providing women with gender-specific educational opportu-nities and support services that fit their particular needs as entrepreneurs and learners.
Ample research, for example, shows that women en-trepreneurs, in comparison with their male counterparts, take a more varied path to business ownership; are less likely to have received conventional training in business skills; come to entrepreneurship at an older age; have different business goals, including being motivated more by personal than fi-nancial rewards; express greater concern for meeting their combined responsibilities at work and home; are more likely to seek outside advice; and have a stronger belief in the value of business education (Center for Women’s Business Research, 1994, 2001, 2005a, 2005b; Greene et al., 2003; Ke-pler & Shane, 2007; Merrill-Sands, Kickul, & Ingols, 2005; Scherer, Brodzinski, & Wiebe, 1990). As demonstrated by the enthusiastic response to the women-centered programs offered by membership organizations and the centers dis-cussed above, these characteristics of women entrepreneurs make them not only appropriate but particularly eager can-didates for nontraditional educational programs addressed specifically to their business approaches and needs.
Furthermore, women entrepreneurs have been shown to think, manage, and talk about their businesses in ways that are rarely addressed or accommodated in traditional (and tradi-tionally male) business education and forums. Research has shown that women are more likely to view their work in terms of values, beliefs, interpersonal connections, spirituality, and family than their male colleagues. One study of business owners’ motivations and management styles found that more than half of the women interviewed emphasized intuitive, cre-ative, right-brain thinking, whereas three-fourths of the men emphasized logical, left-brain thinking, and that women’s decision-making style was more whole-brained than men’s (Center for Women’s Business Research, 1994). Researchers have observed that women entrepreneurs’ management style also demonstrates the centrality of relational connections in women’s lives, and several have reported that many women business leaders are motivated by a strong desire to em-power others and serve the greater good of their commu-nities (Fels, 2004; Hewlett & Buck, 2005; Millam, 2005; Riebe, 2001). Multiple studies have found that the leader-ship style of women business owners tends to be more
par-ticipative or democratic and less autocratic or directive than that of their male counterparts (De Bruin, Brush, & Welter, 2007; Greene et al., 2003; Hewlett & Buck, 2005; Robinson & Lipman-Blumen, 2003). Research has revealed that such women employ many of the elements of what some have called postheroic leadership, which is less autonomous and focused on individual achievement, utilizes a collaborative process, and demonstrates emotional relational intelligence (Fletcher, 2002). Indeed, feedback from participants in the women-centered programs offered by the centers discussed above often alluded to the relief they felt and the confi-dence they gained by hearing fellow women entrepreneurs talk openly about their own work in such terms.
Research on adult women learners has identified gen-dered differences in learning styles that also support the establishment of women’s entrepreneurship centers (Code, 1991; Hayes & Flannery, 2000; Pearson, 1992). Although women have more than proven themselves as capable learn-ers within traditional learning situations, ample evidence also suggests that women’s preferred learning style or way of knowing is more intuitive, subjective, and collaborative (Be-lenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986; Flannery, 2002; Hayes, 2001). This research shows that men and women characteristically employ different ways of knowing and that many women learn most powerfully from what Belenky et al. have termedconnected learning, which, in contrast to more individualistic and adversarial forms of learning, is based on an openness to new ideas and points of view. Although much of the learning taking place within center programs, as within traditional business education, is content-based, it is also consciously geared toward the personal development of learners and the promotion of social change, which in the case of women, learning researchers point out, may call for learning activities that help identify and challenge personal and gender belief systems (Hayes, 2001; Hugo, 2000). The positive responses of center participants directly affirm the power and practical effectiveness of such connected learning, in which knowledge is generated from and connected to their lives and reality as women and entrepreneurs.
Also relevant to providing effective learning opportuni-ties for women is the work of scholars in a number of fields substantiating the power of storytelling in generating and disseminating knowledge (e.g., Brooks, 2000; Brooks & Edwards, 1997; Hayes & Flannery, 2000; Passerini, 1989; Vaillant, 2002), which manifests itself in women’s oft-cited eagerness to hear and share one another’s individual sto-ries. Thus the presentations at conferences and gatherings for women entrepreneurs and the mode of mentoring en-couraged in women-centered programs most often take the form not of abstract, didactic lessons, but of women’s own stories—a format that is overtly discouraged in most male-dominated educational and professional settings. The success of women’s business centers and membership organizations and the enthusiastic response to programs at the women en-trepreneur centers described above demonstrate the efficacy
244 M. RIEBE
of providing settings where women can talk about their own businesses and management principles in their own terms, of having a place of their own where they can discuss busi-ness issues in their own voice without apology or translation, where they can talk about the challenges they share as women without worrying whether their discourse conforms to mas-culine norms of leadership or professionalism.
Another way in which women-centered organizations are ideally suited to support the success of women entrepreneurs is by providing ample access to women role models, mentors, and networks. Because women as a group are relatively new to entrepreneurship, they have far fewer same-sex role mod-els than do their male counterparts, and the few successful businesswomen who do appear in the popular media are more likely to be CEOs or other highly placed women in corpora-tions than entrepreneurs. Yet, as Blake-Beard (2003) points out, it is essential to women’s career development to see ex-amples of how other women have effectively navigated their careers and to hear stories of how other women are succeed-ing without sacrificsucceed-ing everythsucceed-ing else in their lives. A survey conducted by the National Foundation of Women Business Owners found that although women are less likely than their male counterparts to have had a mentor before opening their business, they are more likely to consult outside sources re-garding business management and growth and to seek help from interpersonal networks, including nonexpert or infor-mal mentors such as family members and other business owners (Center for Women’s Business Research, 2001). Re-search has also shown that membership in an association or network of other businesswomen has a highly significant ef-fect on the profitability of women-owned businesses (Greene et al., 2003). By publicizing and honoring the progress and success of women business owners, such organizations also provide women with the recognition that they need to suc-ceed but, which, research tells us, they are less likely to receive than men (Fels, 2004). Thus, women’s centers and organizations can play an important role in the success of women-owned businesses and their local economies by pro-viding a place for successful women to develop networks and share their expertise with other women.
RATIONALE FOR UNIVERSITY-BASED CENTERS FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
As noted previously, the effectiveness of and ongoing need for women-centered entrepreneurship centers have already been amply evidenced by the remarkable success of the cur-rent network of government-sponsored Women’s Business Centers and membership organizations such as NAWBO and the WPO. Yet, this article argues, university-based centers for women entrepreneurs offer their own distinctive and con-siderable advantages and benefits for women learners, spon-soring universities, and local communities.
First, by virtue of their access to women during their academic training as undergraduates and graduate students, university-based centers can reach more women earlier in their career paths than has been the case with other women’s business centers. Research shows that a greater number of younger than older women express interest in starting their own businesses, but that older women are more likely than younger women to actually do so (Neese, 2004). Providing young women with encouragement, training opportunities, and role models during their degree-seeking education can help more younger women gain the confidence they need and shorten the learning curve necessary to launch their own businesses. And as noted previously, by not being limited to a traditional business curriculum and format, centers can also engage in outreach activities to girls and even younger women, at the same time contributing to their university’s recruitment efforts and visibility in the community.
Because university-sponsored centers for women en-trepreneurs are affiliated with their business schools but not directly tied to a single degree program, they can also at-tract students, alumni, and community members from a wide range of fields and majors. This is particularly significant in the case of women entrepreneurs, as women business own-ers have traditionally come from more varied backgrounds than their male counterparts and are more likely to have a liberal arts than a business or technical degree. Such a cen-ter’s university setting and interdisciplinary format allow it to provide entrepreneurial learning opportunities for students in other degree programs and professional schools who may not be candidates for a traditional business education, such as the veterinarians served by Metro State or women in art and design who are interested in opening their own galleries or studios. Even within most undergraduate business programs, women students typically make up half of the students but only a third of those majoring in entrepreneurship. The pres-ence of a women’s center on campus offers entrepreneurship educators an opportunity to attract greater numbers of cur-rent women students to the field and to aid their institution’s recruitment of women students and of faculty interested in entrepreneurship.
The visibility of a women’s center is also likely to inspire more female business students majoring in fields such as management or finance to consider starting their own busi-nesses later in their careers, a growing phenomenon that has received considerable notice in recent years (Hewlett & Buck, 2005; Merrill-Sands et al., 2005). A compelling argument can also be made that entrepreneurship offers women several advantages over management positions and may be a more amenable career direction for many (Fels, 2004; Fletcher, 2005; Greene et al., 2003; Mattis, 2004; Scott, 1986; Still & Timms, 2000). Women’s centers are uniquely positioned to make that case and prepare women for it.
A women’s center also provides alumna and other women business owners in the community with a place to find pro-fessional development opportunities and to volunteer their
services as role models and mentors to the next genera-tion of women entrepreneurs. Anecdotal evidence from sev-eral universities has shown that university-affiliated women’s mentoring programs and centers are particularly effective at attracting successful women as mentors and participants be-cause such programs appeal to those women’s own sense of mission and of themselves as pioneers wanting to make the path easier for those following them. This desire to give back to their communities has been found to be a major motivator of women in management and of women business owners alike (Hewlett & Buck, 2005; Riebe, 2001).
Last, the academic affiliation of university-based women’s business centers also gives them considerable credibility among women seeking professional development options. The programmatic offerings of these centers are firmly grounded not only in present best practices but in the grow-ing body of research on women’s development within a wide range of academic fields. Such centers are ideally placed to effectively integrate research, learning, and practice, to stim-ulate the aspirations of women, and to broaden the perspec-tives of their male colleagues. Unlike academic departments, as Larson and Barnes-Moorhead (2004) point out, centers “are flexible organizations that can [rapidly] change staffing and programs in response to societal demands for new knowl-edge” (p. 4) so as to benefit their students, institutions, and communities. University-based entrepreneurial centers of-fer sponsoring universities a powerful tool for community outreach and opportunities to create new and mutually ben-eficial partnerships with local businesses and governmental agencies, serving as “boundary-spanning organizations that connect academic interests with external stakeholders” (Lar-son & Barnes-Moorhead, p. 2). As at the two institutions discussed above, these benefits can also include new sources of funding (from foundation grants, corporate sponsorships, and private benefactors) and revenue from programmatic of-ferings.
CONCLUSION
In short, centers for women entrepreneurs such as those de-scribed here offer a model for re-envisioning and expanding universities’ business offerings to better serve the needs of the growing ranks of adult and lifelong learners and contribute to the financial vitality of their communities. But even be-yond these economic and institutional benefits, educational equity requires that university business schools and outreach programs develop new ways to provide female learners with educational experiences that meet their particular learning and professional needs. As argued previously, centers for women entrepreneurs offer women learners gender-sensitive educational activities and experiences that they are less likely to find in most business school classrooms, including access to mentors, role models, networking opportunities, and open and free discussion of their concerns in terms and language
with which they are most comfortable. Many of the quali-ties and practices typical of women entrepreneurs, despite having been touted in the business literature as hallmarks of a leadership model particularly suited to present business realities (Fletcher, 2002; Fondas, 1997), still are not gener-ally valued or developed in conventional business programs, where they tend to be seen as too subjective, personal, or even unprofessional. Thus, women need safe places within U.S. universities where they can not only receive the conventional business knowledge they need but also challenge the gen-dered nature of contemporary definitions of leadership and nurture those nontraditional skills and perspectives found to be powerful indices of success for women entrepreneurs. Es-tablishing entrepreneurship centers designed to help them do so thus provides a new, innovative, and powerful opportunity for U.S. universities and business educators to advance their educational missions.
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