Successful Women Entrepreneurs and How Joanne Wilson Inspires Them

In celebration of successful women entrepreneurs everywhere, we’re publishing the speech that WeFestival’s founder Joanne Wilson gave at the kick-off of WeFestival 2016. It is brilliant.

Last week, I had the honor of speaking at WeFestival 2016 in New York City. Successful women entrepreneurs gathered together from all parts of the globe to discuss their trials and tribulations of building a business. The bonus? We got to hear Joanne Wilson speak. She welcomed us with open arms and an opening keynote that did exactly what she wants us to do: Inspire. She’s the founder of WeFestival, an angel investor, an entrepreneur, the author of the Gotham Gal blog, and the embodiment of support for successful women entrepreneurs working to pursue great success in business.

With her permission, we’ve decided to share with you what she said to us. What she had to say was powerful. Mesmerizing, even. Pretend that you’re sitting on top of the World Trade Center looking out onto the beautiful skyline that New York City has to offer. That you’re sitting among women who are figuring it all out – how to make their businesses work, how to soak up inspiration from the women sitting near them, how to choose between the delicious breakfast options in the scrumptious space with strangers who are as familiar as sisters.

And then hear Joanne Wilson’s words:

“The path for women has been uphill from the beginning of history.  The definition of gender roles begins with the simple fact that women can have children and men cannot.  Certainly our physical strengths are different but nothing else should make a difference, yet it has for hundreds of years.

Margaret Mead said “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”  In 1848, those citizens were four women having tea to discuss that seventy years after the American Revolution it was time for women to play a more active role in all parts of society.  They drafted a Declaration of Sentiments that set an agenda for the equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women.  And so the Women’s Rights Movement began.  That was almost 170 years ago.  It took another 42 years for the 19th Amendment to be passed in 1920 that granted voting rights to women.  A lot has happened since then.

After women secured the right to vote, Margaret Sanger founded the American Birth Control League in 1921 and that evolved into Planned Parenthood in 1942.  A group of black women also created a coalition against job discrimination, sexism and racism in 1935.  Through the next few decades the fight for birth control continued until 1960 when the FDA approved the birth control pill.  Now we are making progress.

In 1963, John F. Kennedy established a commission on the status of women and selected Eleanor Roosevelt to chair it.  The commission found substantial discrimination against women in the workplace and recommended fair hiring practices, paid maternity leave and affordable childcare.  Progress, progress.

That same year Betty Friedan came out with the Feminine Mystique. It resonated with women across the country who were feeling dissatisfied in their lives.  I remember my Mom reading that book and starting her own business not that long afterward.  Women were galvanized by that book and in 1966 the National Organization for Women was formed.  It was the next evolution of the women’s liberation movement fighting for equal rights, social justice and equal opportunities in education and employment.

Soon laws were passed regarding common property and no-fault divorce.  Ms. Magazine was born in 1971 and a new voice of feminism entered the scene.  Title IX was passed and the Roe v. Wade decision was handed down.  Times were changing for women.

Title IX has been transformative.  It allowed women equal access to education and that began to change gender stereotypes in the classroom.  The law also gave women a right to fight sexual harassment, get scholarships to schools and all of this gave women a new sense of self-confidence.  It was a landmark shift.

But I can’t help but wonder if all this supposed empowerment let the women of the next generation off the hook. Did we stop waving the flag and moving forward for true equality?

I didn’t realize that I was going to be discriminated as a woman until I hit a snag a few years into my first job.  I was charging along as quickly as I possibly could and then someone held out their palm and said “Stop, women do not move as quickly as men.” Really?  Well, nobody was going to stop me.  I quickly left that job and began to forge my own path.  That path included staying home at points while having 3 kids along the way.

Through my many careers I found myself in the middle of the technology revolution.  I was having breakfast with Nancy Hechinger, the co-founder of WeFestival and a professor at NYU’s ITP school. Nancy said to me “there aren’t enough women in technology.” Nancy is a role model for working women.  She herself has had several careers and children along the way.  She was concerned that not enough women were continuing the fight.  I told her that there were lots of successful women out there starting businesses but they just network differently so you don’t always see them.  Our answer was to have an event that celebrates those successful women.  And so WeFestival was born.  That was almost 7 years ago.  This event today is the 6th WeFestival.  We incubated this festival for 5 years at NYU and now it is moving into its next life.

Six years ago there wasn’t much conversation about women entrepreneurs.  Since then women owned businesses have grown by almost thirty percent.  Women want more control of their careers while attempting to have a balanced life and a flexible work schedule. Being an entrepreneur is not for the fearful.  It is for strong powerful successful women like yourselves who have taken that leap into the unknown to own your own destiny.  

We know that it is more difficult for women to raise money for their businesses.  I can tell you first hand that women take longer to build the foundations of their companies before stepping on the gas.  When I look around at the landscape of gender equality it is refreshing to see many of the large companies that were started in the past twenty years making policy changes that push for equality such as maternity and paternity leave.  We live in a time where families must have 2 incomes to survive and we are seeing companies make changes because of that.  Letting men to take off time to have their children changes the game.  It forces gender equality at home and that bleeds into everything else.

The ROI on companies that have women at the helm is higher.  Having companies with women on the C team makes for a healthier and more successful business.  All of these things start to add up and that is why I believe we are on the edge of a major change. It is a new era of women’s lib.  You can feel it in the air.

Women and equality are a conversation in every business today. Women superstars who are building companies are being written about daily. More data is being analyzed around gender-balanced companies and we have a pretty good shot that the next President of the United States will be a woman.

How do we continue to move forward?  I believe women need to unite as a community while building our companies.  I considered calling it a day after 5 years of this event but it was a night of multiple margaritas right before WeFestival 5 with my husband and sister that changed the trajectory of this business.  My husband said to me “you can’t give this up.  The impact that this event has made on women entrepreneurs is significant.  Take it to the next level”.  My sister chimed in and said she’d run it and that is how we all got here today.

The importance of having a place where women can come to gather, hear and see other successful women who have forged their own path is powerful.  Being in a room with 400 other women who can talk about their business and also talk about how hard the climb is and when do they have time to shop is important.  I want this community to continue to grow. And so, like all of you, we are beginning an entrepreneurial path alongside of you.  Our Slack channel will grow; We will bring this event to Los Angeles in November and add Berlin in 2017.  We want to be the place where women can connect and be heard.  We want to be the place where you have the loudest voice in the room.  We want to be the place where you can meet friends, business partners, think differently, and be validated that you are on the right path.

I think about those four successful women sitting around the table wanting equal rights for themselves and other women.  The reality is that change comes from the outside.  We have to continue pushing this movement ahead.  So as you grow your business with the hope of going public, having a big exit, starting several companies or just building something that makes a difference, it is important for all of you to stay in the public eye while doing that.  We are the role models for the next generation of women to continue the movement of equal rights for all.  We need to do that for the next young woman who is age 8 or 12 so she can point to any of us and say, “I want to be that person.  I can do it because she did it.”  There are not enough of us at that level. I do believe after seeing so many women’s business get funded and grow over the past decade that we are getting there.  This is an ongoing women’s movement that started back in 1848.  Let’s continue to build this community so that all glass ceilings are broken.  It is all of you in this room, successful women entrepreneurs who are taking control of their own lives by building companies that will help establish equal opportunities for all women.

Our businesses are our voice…let’s use them.”

Many thanks to Joanne for letting us publish her words here. May it inspire fellow Founding Moms as much as it did me.