How has the pandemic impacted female entrepreneurs around the world? Has it accelerated the gender gap?
These are among the many questions that the GEM 2020/21 Women's Entrepreneurship Report will explore later this fall. The report will be supported and sponsored by Cartier Women's Initiative (CWI), an annual international entrepreneurship programme that aims to drive change by empowering women impact entrepreneurs (see press release announcement). CWI was launched 15 years ago by Cartier, the exclusive watch and jewellery Maison with a long-lasting commitment towards women.
Wingee Sampaio is the Global Program Director of CWI and the Maison’s diversity and inclusion ambassador. In the following Q and A interview, Wingee shared her thoughts on the current state of female entrepreneurship and how women impact entrepreneurs can realize their full potential.
CWI's vision is a world in which every woman impact entrepreneur driving social change can achieve her full potential. From CWI's experiences, what are the types of environments that enable female impact entrepreneurs to thrive?
Founded in 2006, CWI’s entrepreneurship programme is open to women-run and women-owned businesses from any country and sector that aim to have a strong and sustainable social and/or environmental impact. We do this by offering women impact entrepreneurs financial, social and human capital support. As such, we believe environments whereby women impact entrepreneurs can have unbiased access to financial, social and human capital support are the very ones where they can thrive.
Further, we have also been giving lots of thought to the idea of “collaboration capital.” We define collaboration capital as the opportunity to collaborate with other organisations (businesses/government/NGOs etc.) to further amplify the entrepreneur’s impact. The current pandemic has taught us the importance of collective action. We have seen this amongst entrepreneurs that are successful in building creative alliances to be able to amplify their impact beyond their startup. This is a new category of resource that we hope to provide our program participants in the future.
From your vantage point, how has the pandemic impacted CWI's work and more broadly women entrepreneurs?
The pandemic has impacted women entrepreneurs significantly – and we have seen many businesses pivot to new business models in light of the changing market environment. Further, it is worth noting that as the pandemic has disproportionally impacted women and minorities. In fact, it has not only impacted women entrepreneurs but also their beneficiaries. That said, if ever there was a moment to witness the resilience of a woman leader, the current times have really reinforced the importance of our work. We at the Cartier Women’s Initiative are inspired and motivated to strengthen the ecosystem to enable women impact entrepreneurs to thrive.
What is the rationale for collaborating with GEM as a report sponsor of the GEM 2020/21 Women's Entrepreneurship Special Report?
At the heart of the Cartier Women’s Initiative is the vision of a world where every women impact entrepreneur can realize her full potential. To reach this vision, obtaining and monitoring hard data related to the state of women’s entrepreneurship is critical to enroll more support into the ecosystem and to drive collaboration. We were in search of a partner to do this work together – track, monitor and assess women entrepreneurship activities. This is when the team at Babson College’s Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership recommended that we approach GEM.
What insights are you looking forward to learning from the research?
Firstly, we hope that everyone will have access to the GEM research insights, to bring to light the contribution of women entrepreneurs. Further, the GEM research insights are incredibly valuable especially as it pertains to a global perspective. As a global program ourselves, we find that there are many reflections that can be shared and cross-fertilized from one region to another. How might we build an inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem globally? Which elements are best guided by local infrastructure, and which elements are needed on a global basis? We hope the GEM research will inform and guide our own collaboration efforts, as well as provide some direction on how to expand and grow our program.
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