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.â€
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.â€
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.
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