Welcome to our 2012 special issue introducing you to some of the ‘Successful Women in Business’ that make up our thriving communities. For nearly a quarter of a century The Valley Business Journal (a woman-owned business), has been providing our readers the most up to date business news in the Temecula Valley. During that time we’ve seen four local cities born and a host of businesses grow up to support the burgeoning population of Southwest California.
Whether or not you believe Mitt Romney’s recent claim that 92% of jobs lost under President Obama have affected women, the simple fact is that women in the labor force have been impacted more severely than men during the past three years. The reasons for this are myriad but the easiest to understand is that women were generally spared the worst of the early recession, accounting for only one-quarter of the jobs lost. Men, on the other hand, were hit hard by the devastation in the construction and manufacturing industries – the sectors leading the downturn, leading many to label those early days a ‘mancession’.
But the ‘mancession’ has morphed into the ‘he-covery’, leaving women workers largely in the dust. The share of adult women who are employed is lower than it was two years ago, while men have seen an upturn. As the economy started to stabilize and the recession officially ended, more public sector jobs were shed, including federal, state and local government workers, education and retail jobs – areas dominated by women. According to the National Women’s Law Center, women gained only 12.3% of the more than 2.3 million total jobs added to the economy during the recovery -which include both public and private jobs. This slow pace of recovery in women’s employment has surprised and concerned some experts, who say it’s unclear whether there will be a rebound anytime soon.
But as you’ll find in this section featuring ‘Successful Women in Business’, many local women have found success and leadership as entrepreneurs, problem solvers and niche marketeers even during these challenging times. Unfortunately, according to Donna Kelley, an associate professor of entrepreneurship at Babson College, women’s attitudes are the most likely thing holding them back. “More women than men think there are no opportunities for entrepreneurship, don’t believe in their capability to launch a startup or are fearful of doing so. While numbers are growing — there are about 187 million women running their own ventures in 59 economies – the attitudes tend to hold ladies back.”
However, women still represent more than a third of people involved in entrepreneurial activity in this country, a number that continues to grow at nearly twice the rate of all U.S. firms. “Any economist will tell you, the job creation we need to fuel any kind of middle class is not going to come from corporations, it’s going to come from small businesses,” according to Harvard business professor Nancy Koehn. “With that in mind, what we need to start thinking about is how we capitalize on this vast network of women entrepreneurs. How do we nurture them? How do we fund them? How do we use this national asset?”
While the California business climate has grown less friendly to all businesses during the past decade making it more and more challenging to start up and grow a successful business, the women you will meet in these pages have been local pioneers, entrepreneurs and contributors to many of the finest businesses in our community, as well as civic and elected leaders. We hope you enjoy meeting them.