When we were at the USASBE conference last weekend presenting the ACTiVATE program for an award, one woman stood up and said that she could not imagine enrolling in a woman-only program. She was a bench PhD and felt that she had learned a great deal by ‘toughing it out’ in a man’s world. I explained to her that having built my business in a very male-dominated industry I could understand her point, but from my experiences with the program through the last 3 years, I have seen a real benefit to the single-gender environment. It may not be for everyone, but for some women it made all the difference in deciding to join and succeeding in the program. Vivian Armor, one of the program’s Primary Investigators and the Director for the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship at UMBC, then pointed out that at our recent recruiting sessions, she has been asking if it mattered that the course was for women only. About half agreed that it was essential. By the end of the program, however, 100% of the participants have consistently stated that the single-gender environment was important. What changed?
The ACTiVATE program focuses on mid-career women who have already been out in the “man’s world” and been successful in it. That would lead us to believe, then, that being around all women might not be so critical. Some, like the woman mentioned above, actually feel it would be detrimental. I have to confess: several years ago I actually left a Business Roundtable because it was all women and I wanted to get male insight and advice. My perspective is different now.
While I agree that women can learn a lot from working and collaborating with men, one of the key factors in the success of this women-only entrepreneurship training was that having a single-gender environment is safe. It provides an atmosphere in which women who are already accomplished and used to being tops in their field can experiment and take risks as they learned new skills. While there are some people (insane as they are) who enjoy the discomfort of trying something new, most avoid it or at least shy away from doing so publicly. Starting a business definitely takes you out of your comfort zone. It is very different than the corporate environment and you have to rely, at least in the beginning, completely on yourself. It is not for the faint of heart, motivation, or energy.
The mutual support I have witnessed between the participants not only within the same ACTiVATE class but across all of the program’s alumnae has been inspiring. We are truly creating a New Girls Network to compete with the Old Boy’s one and we’re not alone. The Women President’s Organization provides single-gender support for women presidents with revenues over $1M. Count Me In’s Make Mine a $Million Program (for which I am a mentor) brings together women entrepreneurs who have already started a business but want to grow it beyond the magic million dollar mark. Having done that I can tell you – it’s not easy – but by bringing these women together, there is a real magic about doing it together. And it seems to be working!
An article in Tuesday’s Telegraph, a UK-based newspaper, confirms that this is not just a US phenomenon. Women all over the world are realizing that learning how to start a business within a group of other aspiring women entrepreneurs, or whatever commonalities make for an affinity group, is powerful. It doesn’t mean, however, that we should lock out the men from being involved in our business start-up or growth. It means having that like-minded support group as a base can give you an edge. The USASBE judges must have agreed. ACTiVATE won their national award for Best Specialty Entrepreneurship Education Program.
I am curious about your thoughts…agree? Disagree? If you’ve been involved with a women-only group, what was the draw for you?
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I think the ACTiVATE program is unforgetable. I will never forget that.mbt shoes
I think its unfair that such are labeled “women-only”but men aren’t . I prefer it either be both career woman/man or just man and woman. Both should receive props for their ambition and achievements.
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Im happy to give a single gender group a go, but I generally think mixed groups have to be better in the long run. I think both sexes can offer each other different points of view that you wouldnt get in a single sex group.
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I’d like to experience business both ways – both with men and without men. I tend to lean towards the thinking that variety adds spice but I can also see how women may thrive more in a female only environment, there are none of the gender issues you can get in a mixed situation and I think women can pass on their strengths better than men.
Well, I did not attend any of these classes, nor is my business near a a million dollars in sales – but I agree a 100%. I worked in an all male” industry with me being the only “skirt” as they called me – it was not fun it was not inspiring. The women I meet through my blog, through trade shows and through just plain Entreprenerial Events inspire me more than any Male Boss….sorry but this is true. Way to go – I am woman hear me roar let the women train alone.
Good luck Julie – looks like 2008 is going to be a great year for you!
Today is the birthday of Rev Martin Luther King, Jr., and an opinion piece in today’s Baltimore Sun titled Why we still need black colleges” got me thinking about why we need all-women entrepreneurship classes. The author says that historically black colleges create “counter-forces of opportunity” for African Americans more likely to be raised in an economically challenged environment. I think that may be one of the reasons why I support an all-women training environment for entrepreneurship. I went to college in the mid 1980’s and I can’t think of a single female role model in entrepreneurship from those days that I knew personally. I am a 2006 graduate of the ACTiVATE program and the all-women environment was extremely important to me. Not only did I meet and interact with the female entrepreneur instructors but I worked side-by-side with 30 women who had the same goals as mine. I needed to learn about women as entrepreneurs not just entrepreneurship.
As a soon-to-be graduate, I think the ACTiVATE program is remarkable.
Julie and Carol made many very pertinent comments about it.
To me, the women-only composition of the class is a major differentiator from other entrepreneurship programs. It really sets ACTiVATE apart as it impacts the whole environment of the program.
Rather than learning in a competition-charged atmosphere, which can be intimidating and threatening, we were able to evolve in a nurturing environment where the key idea was mutual help.
I do not agree with those detractors, who believe women-only courses are creating a sort of bubble far away from the “real†business world. Far to the contrary, I believe programs like ACTiVATE arm women with the tools they need to confront a strongly male-dominated executive world.
Maybe, in order to play in the Old Boy’s playground, women need to acknowledge and embrace their difference.
I’m an ACTiVATE 2006 alum. The tone of the course — and its success, I think — is very dependent on it being all women. There is exposure to male thought throughout the course, through male faculty and invited speakers. The success is not because no men are allowed to advise and inject ideas. It is because no men participate in the social aspect, where we digest the course material and make it our own, and compare and contrast ourselves with each other as fellow students, serving as each other’s role models. Men are often natural leaders, while women are not, but when you get a group of women together discussing things without men, the women can develop their leadership skills more easily.
A 2007 ACTiVATE, soon-to-be graduate, I was in the 50% of the class that initially said this did not have to be a women-only class, and changed my mind. Even in high school, my Mom didn’t let me accept a scholarship to a girls’ school, because she thought it important that I learn to be in a mixed-gender world. As a software engineer 30 years ago, when there were few women, I used to joke that a keyboard can’t tell who is behind it, but knew I was fortunate that the computer field was so open to women from the beginning. Yet, I often found myself in groups where I was the only woman, especially at conferences, and even more so later, when I got into manufacturing.
The ACTiVATE program, though, is different. It may be what Julie says, you are so far out of your comfort zone starting a new company, it helps to have a supportive group around you. Or, it may be like one of the things discovered when computers were first introduced to classrooms. When there are electronic toys, and the supply is limited, boys will fight with each other to get to them, and girls will hang back to be polite. This problem was later solved by making sure boys and girls had equal time on the computer.
Substitute business plans for toys, and you might see the same thing – it’s not that women can’t or won’t do it; all three classes at ACTiVATE have drawn a full complement of women who wanted to start their own technology businesses – it’s that women work at a different pace than men, slowly, methodically, and this pace is better served in the early days with a homogenous group.
The other good part about this women-only group is that half of the instructors are women, and I have not met a lot of women who have started their own businesses, whereas the model for normal in the business world is a business a man started.
That is eye-opening.