Women of Color: Force Behind Entrepreneurship

Since the beginning, women have always thrived and strived to achieve every goal they aspired to accomplish. Unfortunately, women were limited to mediocre positions that belittle their abilities in business. 

Did you know it was once illegal for women to obtain certain positions without permission of the government or their husband? Some of the things included obtaining a passport without their husband’s name, working overnight, and wearing heels over 2 inches. 

Though all these barriers were put in place to limit women and their rights, women still surpassed many of their male counterparts and broke boundaries. By breaking the barriers, this proved that women everywhere were more than capable if just given the same opportunity as men. One of the main avenues where women gained respect and fair profit was in entrepreneurship. 

An entrepreneur is someone who has an idea and decides to take a chance with a business or enterprise. Becoming an entrepreneur isn’t easy. Profits aren’t ever guaranteed and there’s an immense amount of hard work that goes into becoming a successful entrepreneur. 

The first woman entrepreneur was Sarah Breedlove, better known as Madam C.J. Walker. Walker’s parents were previously slaves in St. Louis, Missouri and gave birth to Walker after The Emancipation Proclamation. Born into poverty, Walker didn’t allow her experience to stop her from becoming successful. 

Walker started her journey when she began experiencing hair loss. She believed other black women may have had the same problems and came up with “Walker System”. This was a combination of hot combs, hair treatment and hair lotions. Walker forever changed the Black hair industry, because before then, Black women were limited to hair products made for white people. Walker later moved from the south to Denver, Colorado with $1.05 in her savings account and transformed her hair company into a multi-million-dollar business. 

Walker was not only managing her business, but she was also a philanthropist. Walker took pride in giving back to the black community by offering women of color jobs, while donating money to other black organizations, to ensure their prosperity as well. Since Walker, many women of color were inspired and now are leading the entrepreneur market. In 2019 

State of Women Owned Business Report shows the percentages for entrepreneur Black women are at 50%, Native Hawaiian 41%, Latina 40%, Asian American 37% and Native American 26% for minority representation in entrepreneur positions.

These statistics may be shocking to most, but when you consider the amount of turmoil these marginalized groups have endured, triumph was inevitable. 

Though women of color have been successful, they still experience discrimination when applying for loans. Oftentimes utilizing their own profits to fund their business. This creates an obstacle when taking their business from a small company  to major corporation, because it often places women of color in debt. 

However, as women of color education levels increase, so does their contribution in the economy. This gain in change education will subsequently drive more businesses around STEM (science, tech, engineering and mathematics) roles in places where diversity and inclusion often lack. Ultimately creating paths for young women who look like them to follow. 

Fortunately, women of color have passed the days to wait for an opportunity, and now invest in their own businesses. As the increase of social media use, and marginalized groups speak out more against discrimination there will be shift in the job market. The best ways to support women owned businesses is by celebrating women, giving women the space to gain exposure, and ultimately providing them with the tools to prosper. 

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