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Even if you're not a federal contractor, there are many lessons to be learned from the 11-year struggle to make the Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contracting Program a reality.  It is, among many other things, a lesson in perseverance, finding your voice, and the importance of having a strategy.  The Late Spring 2011 issue of The Exchange, the Women's Leadership Exchange newsletter, featured an article by Barbara Kasoff, WIPP President, "Why You Should Celebrate the Women's Procurement Program Even if You Are Not a Federal Contractor."  Follow the link, or read the article below:

I was having dinner with a friend recently and she said "enough already" about the women's procurement program.  She doesn't want to be a federal contractor and so all of WIPP's attention to this program seems a bit much to her.  Not at all surprising, but I would submit this "case study" is applicable to every woman business owner even if you never plan to be a contractor.  Below is a list of lessons learned from this 11-year journey, which I hope you will find helpful in your business or policy organization.

•    Women Business Owners Won.  If there is ever any doubt in your mind whether the Congress listens to women business owners, think no further.  Women business owners are the sole reason behind this program from passage of the law to implementation by SBA.  If you are a woman business owner, this victory is yours.

•    The Importance of a Strategy.  While passion is required for good advocacy, strategy makes the difference between success and failure.  In the case of this program, we had to know how to play the Congressional rules to our advantage.  We had to build a record, know when to mobilize, when to push and put in place a program to increase the number of women interested in contracting.

•    A Lesson In Perseverance.  It took eleven years to make this happen.  This goes to show that even though making changes in government are not necessarily fast, persistence will result in change.  This lesson applies to anyone running a business.

•    Mobilizing Many Voices Works.  If you want to affect change in your community, state or national level, assemble a large coalition of supporters.  While one or two people can make inroads, a coalition will make change possible.  In this case, millions of women spoke out and many, many organizations registered their support.

•    Take Criticism With A Grain of Salt.  Someone once wisely stated that if you are an effective leader, you will be criticized.  In this case, while we did everything we could to minimize animosity, pushing for change subjected us to criticism within the government.  But that just comes with the territory.  Don't let it derail you.

•    Find Your Champions.  In the case of this program, women Members of Congress really stepped up to the plate.  A majority of women in the House supported implementation of a good program and every single women Senator supported us.  Even though women are not the majority in Congress in terms of numbers, they pack a mighty punch.  There were also many unsung heros that worked behind the scenes to help. Elected officials are not the only ones who will step up to be champions.

•    Repeat Your Message Often.  Even though you think the whole world knows your message and can recite it word for word, think again.  Studies show that it takes in the range of 25-40 repetitions to learn.  WIPP and its coalition partners repeated the message that women needed this program to succeed in government contracting and we kept repeating it to Congress, federal agencies, and the White House for 11 years.

•    It Takes Leaders - Are You One?  There is no question that without leadership within the women's business community, this program would simply have died due to unanswered opposition.  Women who head women's business organizations provided leadership at the national level. Individual women business owners who are influential in their communities provided leadership at the local level.  Hundreds of thousands of women business owners responded to action alerts, sent letters when asked, visited their legislators and supported organizations like WIPP who provided the united voice.

Now That We Have the Program, We Need Your Help To Make It Work.  Getting this program in place is just the first step although it took 11 years.  Now the challenge lies ahead- making it work.  That will require visits to the federal agencies and local SBAs to promote the program.  It will require identification of contracts which could be utilizing this program.  It will require educating women on the specifics of the program.  If you don't want to become a contractor, consider supporting the women who do.  They will be there for you when you need their voice on your issue.  And don't forget to celebrate- you won.

Barbara Kasoff is the President and CEO, and Co-Founder of Women Impacting Public Policy, Inc., a non-profit, nonpartisan public policy advocacy organization with over half a million members including over 50 business organizations, educating and advocating on economic issues for women in business.  For more information visit www.wipp.org.

One of the key aspects to running a successful business is staffing - the team you hire can make or break your business. The following article illustrates why it's important for women business owners to ensure that mid-level managers get the experience they need to continue moving up in the company; this is often a problem particularly for women, and business owners need to be aware of it when they make hiring and promotion decisions.

With that in mind, I want to share the following article by Becky Sheetz-Runkle from WomenOnBusiness.com (original post: http://www.womenonbusiness.com/women-executives-more-than-twice-as-likely-to-leave-jobs/).


Female executives are more than twice as likely to leave their jobs as men. This includes both voluntarily and involuntarily departures. Yesterday I was interviewed by a reporter writing for CareerBuilder on negotiating for women in business, and the data from a study by John Becker-Blease of Oregon State University, and his colleagues from Loyola Marymount University and Trinity College, came to mind. They analyzed data from Standard & Poor's 1500 firms to reach their conclusions. The researchers determined if departures were voluntary or involuntary based on evaluating public news accounts of each executive.

They determined that 7.2% of women executives in the survey left their jobs, compared to 3.8% of men. Based on their analysis, voluntary rates were 4.3% for women and 2.8% for men, and involuntary rates were 2.9% for women and 0.9% for men.

As reported in U.S. News, Becker-Blease said, "We really had to dig deep to tease out any systematic patterns behind these departures. . . We did find that women were slightly more likely to leave smaller firms, and firms with more male-dominated boards, but this was a small effect size."

For those women dismissed from their jobs, they suggest that mid-level managers may not be getting the opportunities and support that they need to advance. "Intriguing evidence suggesting that while the market may seem to perceive women as less capable business leaders, the disparity isn't really about gender, but about the experience those women bring to the table, " Becker-Blease said.

The researchers concluded that gender discrimination didn't rear its ugly head "at an obvious level."

Based on my research for Sun Tzu for Women, I think there's more to the story when it comes to women choosing to leave executive positions, and I'll be blogging about that very soon. Until next time...

This photo was taken in the White House Situation Room as President Obama and his team of national security advisors monitored the Navy SEAL Team 6 mission that brought Obama Bin Laden, the world's most iniquitous terrorist and Al Qaida mastermind, to his final demise. It is important that we stop to recognize the importance of this historic moment that closes a chapter of fear and anxiety in our nation's history. But it is also important to take notice that this photo points to the progress we have made in this country with respect to women's equality. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is arguably one of the most powerful diplomats in the world, and she has a seat at table that historically has been occupied by men only. Secretary Clinton's prominent position in the foreground of this photo signals to the world that women do have a voice in international politics. Clinton is not the only woman in this photograph; Director of Counter Terrorism Audrey Tomason can also be seen in the photograph.

The fact that not one but two women are featured in this instantly infamous photograph is proof of how far we have come with respect to getting women a seat at the table, literally. And yet still, despite the tremendous progress made by female trailblazers such as Secretary Clinton, women are still denied opportunities at the most basic level in our military. For instance, in just a few short months, the Air Force will award a contract to build Light Air Support (LAS) and Light Attack and Armed Reconnaissance (LAAR) aircraft.  Two companies have emerged as frontrunners for this contract. One is the American Hawker Beechcraft, which has proposed an aircraft designed to accommodate roughly 95 percent of the military's potential male and female pilot population. The competitor, Brazilian- based Embraer, has submitted an aircraft for consideration that relies on outdated standards and will fail to accommodate a large percentage of female pilots. It is perplexing as to why, after women have risen to the most powerful and influential positions in the country, our military officials would even consider building an aircraft that would exclude female pilots from piloting, and thus limiting their opportunities for career advancements.

How can we expect the next Hillary Clinton and the next Audrey Tomason to ascend to positions of power, when they are not even being given the same opportunities as their male counterparts in the armed services? We need to support opportunities for women at the most basic levels of leadership. Only then will Secretary Clinton and Ms. Tomason's successors be afforded the ability to follow the path that has been paved for them by the female leaders that came before them.

In February 2011, the Business and Professional Women's Foundation (BPFW) initiated a survey to research the use of high speed Internet (broadband) technology among four diverse groups of women: those employed by other, those self employed, those retired, and women seeking employment. The purpose was to explore women's use of technology in both their business and personal lives as a measure of advancement and overall impact on quality of life and personal/professional success.

Today, high speed Internet plays a central role in our lives. The result of an online Internet survey conducted by BPWF on the use of high speed technology by women confirms this and also shows that there are differences in high speed Internet access, use, and needs based on age, employment, military status, and geographic location. Not surprisingly, women business owners and self employed women use high speed technology to build their businesses through marketing, but readily admit that they are not always aware of what they should be learning/doing to improve efficiency, advance and maximize their results.

Key findings related to women-owned businesses:

1. Women want to use high speed technology to build their small and home based businesses (particularly through marketing) but readily admit they are unaware of what they should be learning/doing. Women were asked, "What would you like to do using high speed Internet that you cannot do now?" A common aspiration (20% of respondents) centered on building a better business, often via leveraging social media to market their businesses.

2. Women are not accessing government contacts for business growth. The question of government procurement interest is important in examining how women business owners approach resource development for growth. Government procurement avenues can afford any company growth and stability opportunities. WIPP and American Express Open partnered to launch Give Me 5 an education program providing a robust curriculum of webinars and events to open this window of opportunity for women business owners as well as assist newer contractors to increase their contracting business development.  


For more information, visit www.bpwfoundation.org

Mother's Day offers us an occasion to reflect upon the opportunities and advantages we would not have enjoyed without the hard work, care, and support of America's mothers. Children of enlisted and commissioned mothers find this an especially poignant holiday, as their mothers balance two heroic duties, raising a family and serving our country.  It is imperative that these brave women in uniform are appropriately honored not only this Mother's Day, but throughout the entire year. Despite the selfless courage displayed by so many women, the Department of Defense continues to consider procuring aircraft that does not accommodate many female pilots, thereby limiting their career advancement.
 
The Air Force is considering two planes to fill its request for a Light Air Support (LAS) and Light Attack and Armed Reconnaissance (LAAR) aircraft. One of the planes is the American made Hawker Beechcraft AT-6. This plane was designed to accommodate roughly 95 percent of the military's potential male and female pilot population. The competitor, Embraer, has designed an aircraft using outdated standards, and it will fail to accommodate a large percentage of female pilots. Given the rigorous demands of military flight training, it would be reprehensible for our Air Force to choose an aircraft for the LAS and LAAR contract that will exclude so many qualified female pilots based on height and weight standards.

As Mother's Day approaches we should remind the Department of Defense how many honorable women have sacrificed so much to protect our country at home and abroad.  We should not punish them by selecting an aircraft that they cannot safely pilot. The women and mothers protecting our country deserve better.