The four women in the Content Journey leadership team sitting on stairs

Celebrating Women in Business

ByLindsey Miller
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What have you done to support women in business this week, month, or year? How can you do more? We’re reflecting on these questions this week since the third full week in October is National Business Women’s Week. It’s a time to celebrate women in business and how far we’ve come, even if we still have progress to make. 

As a female-owned and -led company, the Content Journey intentionally supports women-owned businesses year-round. We encourage you to join us.

Stats on Women in Business

It’s incredible to think that there was a time when women didn’t own businesses. Heck, there was a time when we weren’t even allowed to. It’s empowering to see how far we’ve come. Women entrepreneurs grew by 48% from January 2020 to December 2021, outpacing men by more than 25%.

Other stats on women in business:

  • There are about 13 million female business owners in the U.S., which is 42% of all businesses.
  • Women employ about 9.4 million people.
  • The average annual revenue for women-owned businesses is more than $330,000.

And, my friend Erika Lucas shared this wonderful stat on Twitter earlier today:

In other words, women are contributing in a big way to the workforce and the economy. First, we must continue recognizing these contributions, but these women aren’t going anywhere, and we’re here for it!

Why Support Women in Business

Why should you support women in business? We’d ask, “Why not?” The government didn’t provide support for women to own businesses on their own until 1988. Yep, you read that correctly. Which means we’ve got a lot of catching up to do. 

In a time when we make statements with where and how we spend our money, supporting female-owned businesses is one worth making. 

Reasons to support women in business:

  • Empowering Women. Let’s face it. The world still isn’t overly female-friendly. Women are discriminated against and held back at every level. Yet almost everyone reading this post has or had a mother they wouldn’t want treated that way. Empowering women by supporting their business means treating them the way you want people to treat your mother, sister, or daughter. It’s helping them make a better space for women in the world.
  • Improving Women’s Financial Position. Women earn 17% less than men on average. Yet women are more likely to be single parents and are more likely than men to end up in poverty. The situation is even worse for women of color. For example, Black women were paid 58% on average of what white men were paid in 2020. Like Latinas and Native women, Black women experience a substantially wider pay gap than all women due to the compounded effect of racism and sexism. Female founders hire more than twice the female workers than male-owned companies. You improve women’s financial position when you shop female-owned.
  • Innovation. Women and men think differently, which results in female-owned and -led businesses innovating in unique ways. We’re not tied to the same old rules and routines we’ve practiced for generations. We’re ready to serve people in different ways. And because women still are responsible for most household and child-rearing duties, we’re looking to make other people’s lives in various situations easier. We know what it’s like to wear many hats.

Women in Business to Support

I hesitated to write this section of this post. Not because I don’t support and encourage the support of women in business. But as a female entrepreneur, I work with loads of amazing women who support me and vice versa. I’m afraid to leave someone off of a list. 

It also isn’t helpful to encourage people to support women in business and not give them some ideas of female-owned businesses to support. So, dear women, please don’t be hurt if I forgot to put you on this already-too-long list. I see you and support you completely. 

Women in business to consider supporting:

  • Melanie Bartholomew, owner of Design Desk Agency, a website development and design company.
  • Karen Berry, owner of Karen Berry Meditation and a meditation specialist in Oklahoma
  • Heather J. Brunner, CEO and chair of WP Engine, a WordPress hosting company  
  • Michele Butcher-Jones, founder of Can’t Speak Geek, an organization that helps make tech easier to understand. 
  • Lori Calcott, owner of WebShine, a search engine marketing company
  • Betsy Chapman, co-owner of All Counseling, a website focused on connecting people with the professional mental health resources they need and supporting mental health providers with marketing and website development services.
  • Sunshine Chapman, president of ERC Provider, a company that helps other companies get government funding their eligible for as a result of the pandemic.
  • Kimberly Coleman, co-founder of Paid Memberships Pro, a WordPress membership plugin
  • Amber England, owner of Strategy 77, a public affairs campaign and advocacy organization
  • Cassie Garman, owner of With Cake, a positive feedback Slack integration app, and co-owner of Mindsize, an e-commerce website development company
  • Sheryle Gillihan, CEO of CauseLabs, a website and app development company that specializes in assisting nonprofits with development services and growing positive impact
  • Sara Graybill, owner of Graybill Creative, a website design and development company 
  • Lindsay Halsey, co-owner of Pathfinder SEO, a search engine optimization company
  • Amber Hinds, founder and CEO of Equalize Digital, a WordPress accessibility firm
  • Maya Joy, owner of Maya Joy Style, her website is coming, but she is my personal stylist and a young college student. Follow her on Instagram and reach out if you have an upcoming event where you need something special or even headshot styling. She won’t let you down!
  • Jessica Lauren, owner of Jessica Lauren Assists, which focuses on video production for social media 
  • Tracy Levesque, co-owner and co-founder of Yikes, a WordPress development and design company
  • Ana Nunez, owner of Vida Bars, a sustainable hair care product company
  • Sharina Perry, owner of Utopia Plastix, a sustainable plastics alternatives company 
  • Deemah Ramadan, owner of DBG Construction, an Oklahoma City-based contractor
  • Valerie Riley, owner of LifeSquire, an assistant training and placement company
  • Lisa Sabin-Wilson, co-owner and COO of WebDevStudios, a web development company 
  • Miriam Schwab, CEO and co-founder of Strattic, a static and headless WordPress agency
  • Jillian Trujillo, president of Lettering Express, a promotional product and business branding company

Please consider supporting these amazing female founders and leaders with your next project or purchase.

Content Journey Supports Women

We’re not bashing males, don’t get us wrong, but Content Journey supports women-owned and -led businesses first because we are one. We believe that the world changes for the better when women support other women. Please join us in supporting other women in business. And if you need content marketing services, we’d appreciate your support. Just book a call, and let’s chat.

Citations:

2020 Annual Report • NWBC. NWBC. (2020, December 18). Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://cdn.www.nwbc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/21113833/2020-NWBC-Annual-Report.html 

Black Women & The Pay Gap. AAUW. (2022, September 20). Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://www.aauw.org/resources/article/black-women-and-the-pay-gap/ 

New data shows growth in women entrepreneurs up 48%; outpacing male counterparts by over 20%. Business Wire. (2022, March 31). Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220331005406/en/ 

The 2019 state of women-owned businesses report – ventureneer. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://ventureneer.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Final-2019-state-of-women-owned-businesses-report.pdf 

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.). Median earnings for women in 2021 were 83.1 percent of the median for men. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2022/median-earnings-for-women-in-2021-were-83-1-percent-of-the-median-for-men.htm 

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