Women on the Rise
Carissa Reiniger & Rima Maamari
Iinquiring Minds
Autumn 2006

Women on the Rise

An undeniable force has been mounting over the last 20 years and as it rises to the surface, it brings with it a combination of power and grace that has firmly planted itself in the Canadian economy. Welcome to the reign of Canadian women entrepreneurs. How influential are they? One group cares to find out. Women Entrepreneurs of Canada (WEC) is a national forum of selfemployed women who are approaching this very topic from a unique angle.

Founded in 1992, WEC has championed numerous initiatives on behalf of women entrepreneurs at the local, national and international level. These include producing an award-winning national resource guide for women business owners in Canada; sponsoring the first all-women trade mission to Washington, D.C.; and serving on the Prime Minister’s Task Force to develop a national strategy to encourage women entrepreneurs in Canada. Over the years, WEC has connected women-owned businesses from a range of industries to exchange ideas and create opportunities.

Now their efforts are moving to a new level. Instead of traditional programming and random seminars and workshops that tend to be the norm on their calendar, WEC is moving online. With relationships with the likes of Microsoft, the WEC website will be a resource for women who are looking for templates, tips from other women entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs, and a general hub for ideas, knowledge and advice.

To go along with the online tools, they’ve decided to add some research to their agenda. “We are quite interested in learning about how the level of work that selfemployment requires affects the health of female entrepreneurs in Canada,” says Ruth Bastedo, President of WEC. With partners like WestJet, Chatelaine, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Rethink Breast Cancer and more, WEC is on a mission to fully understand the health risks that women in business face. WEC is in the process of pulling all the pieces together to execute a full research campaign that will focus on Canadian women and real issues for Canadian women in business.

In addition, WEC has chosen to connect with women’s groups across the country, not to compete with them, but rather to create a community of interest. Bringing together all associations so that every group can benefit, learn and contribute to each other, resulting in a networking force that once combined will create some very big ideas. Primarily situated in Toronto, WEC has already begun its expansion, reaching out to other community groups in Canada, starting with Edmonton. Professor Karen Hughes from the University of Alberta was flown in to Toronto for a luncheon hosted by WEC. Hughes presented her recent book, Female Enterprise in the New Economy to a captivated audience of approximately 100 women.

She points out that women-owned businesses are contributing over $18 billion to the Canadian economy and that there are over 800,000 women-owned businesses in Canada. Reasons why women are choosing entrepreneurship include more challenging work, a more positive work environment, the opportunity to pursue more meaningful work and, most importantly, the desire for independence. In addition, Hughes also points out work and family balance as a very important factor in becoming self-employed.

But independence has its pr ice, as Hughes states that women entrepreneurs work 20 per cent more hours than other women. And while programs exist that encourage women to start businesses, women entrepreneurs still lack benefits, protections and social services typically granted to Canadian workers in their status as employees. Yet the pros must outway the cons, as Hughes’s research shows that Canada has one of the highest rates of female entrepreneurship in the world.

Right on the heels of Hughes’s book launch luncheon WEC presented Think Big! Creating Sustainable Growth: A daylong conference that was dedicated to inspiring big ideas and taking big risks in order to make growth happen. The key speakers, such as Carol Hyatt, Ellie Rubin and Mary Cantando, were strategically chosen to integrate value, excitement and determination into the audience. And the outcome proved to be profoundly moving with a number of women expressing their positive feedback and input from the event.

In addition, to kick-start the Western expansion, WEC hosted Think Big! simultaneously to an audience in Edmonton, moving one heel closer to their national community of interest. Stay tuned for their next big event sometime in the Fall. There is no disputing the rise of Canadian women entrepreneurs and their growing influence in the Canadian economy. And now, with associations like WEC paying close attention to the topic and providing connections nationwide, the power and the possibilities are endless. www.wec.ca
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