Pink Ghettos, Judging, Girlpower, etc.
I’ll begin with a common quote from an uncommon woman, Madeleine Albright:
“There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.”
I like to say the following:
“There’s a special place in heaven for women who help other women.”
Take whichever quote you deem more appropriate, and use it as a lens for my current blog rant, in 3….2….1……!
Ladies, I was disturbed to read this article this week about the “pink ghetto” and women trashing other women not for having the audacity to start a business, but instead, JUDGE the women on WHAT TYPE of business they have. Really? This reminds me of a conversation I had not too long ago, about another woman business owner who was offended by other women businesses at a local event, because “all they did” was sell jewelry. What they do apparently either wasn’t good enough, or wasn’t to be taken seriously enough to be worthy of praise for being entrepreneurial-enough.
We MUST, as women who dare to start businesses, SUPPORT EACH OTHER. We’ve got to STOP JUDGING each other. Lastly, NEVER judge someone who dared to dream and start a business. BUSINESS IS BUSINESS, period. If you don’t like their product? Fine, don’t buy from them. But to take it to another level and completely trash women because of their business idea…? That just has to stop.
Women are a few thousand years behind men right now, and we’ve got some catching up to do. Let’s celebrate our achievements and help each other when we can, rather than judging, being catty and just bashing each other based upon our NAICS codes and whether we deem them as “worthy” or “not worthy.” I don’t really see men trashing each other over their NAICS codes, so why are we doing damage to our very own gender by allowing this?
Ladies, don’t get me wrong. I don’t love each and every businessowner I run across in my career. I can’t use every small business idea on the planet for myself and my businesses, either. But–in my mind? Business is business, and we must, must, must support each other as entrepreneurs, businessowners, and people who dare to dream.
I hope either Madeleine’s quote or my quote stuck with you. Keep moving forward, ladies, with your business plans and ideas. We need them–ALL OF THEM. Daring to dream is the American Way, REGARDLESS of your company’s NAICS code.
