Overcoming The Mompreneur Stigma

Personally, I have never felt any anger over the term “mompreneur.” It is a fitting term for a world filled with entrepreneurial women that balance family and business. However, it can also create an obstacle for some. Forbes takes a look at the term and what it means to those moms that are just entrepreneurs.

Carla Thompson, founder of Austin-based women’s network Sharp Skirts, an organization that takes on the challenges of women entrepreneurs by building a network for sharing knowledge and experiences identifies one significant part of the problem: the “mompreneur.” It is a moniker that she finds especially derogatory. “I’m a businesswoman who happens to have children. End of story.”

The mompreneur stigma is one that was recently taken on in a U.S. Chamber of Commerce panel on overcoming what they called “The Cupcake Challenge.” The catchy phrase refers to the challenge many female entrepreneurs face when they are trying to sell a “cute” consumer business idea to funders, whether it’s a cupcake bakery, a line of wooden toys or sign language school for parents of infants.

Patricia Greene, Ph.D., and cofounder of The Diana Project, a research group that studies women’s entrepreneurship in the U.S., sees the cupcake challenge less as an undervaluing than a disconnect between financiers and female business owners. “The major problem is a real lack of understanding on each side: what the woman wants and what the lender or investor needs,” says Greene. “Neither really understands the other.”

The stigma isn’t really about the “cuteness,” she continues. “It’s about women showing that they have a viable, sustainable business model with enough growth potential to meet the investor’s needs.” To give some perspective, 97% of the 10.1 million women-led businesses operating today have revenues under $1 million.

Photo by epSos.de

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