1988 - “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley is released; Benazir Bhutto is elected as the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan; the Soviets pull out of Afghanistan; Stephen Hawkings publishes “A Brief History of Time;” and Prozac is introduced to a hungry market.
Things were looking up in the world. 1988 was also the year of the signing of the Women’s Business Ownership Act – a bill that got rid of the male cosigner requirement, which made it so women were required to have a male relative sign any business loan, and also set up the National Women’s Business Council.
While the strides made by women with the passage of this bill are something that should be praised, it is a shocking reminder that even in the year that Microsoft Office is released and "Die Hard" hit theaters – women were still struggling to gain an equal footing in the business world.
However, moves are being made in DFW to level the playing field. Early this year, a study by FitSmallBusiness.com ranked Texas as No. 1 for the Best States for Female Entrepreneurs, based on the common things one hears about the Metroplex: “below average cost of living,” “no corporate or income taxes,” and the “business-friendly legal and economic climate.” However, a number of local leaders and executives are looking to address some of the issues women still face; not only in tech, but in the larger business ecosystem.
“Women in business is growing here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area… [the Metroplex] has always been in the top ten in terms of economic clout for women business owners; I think it’s just the economic climate that is really why there is a need for… women to start businesses,” said Tarsha Polk, director of LiftFund Dallas-Fort Worth Women’s Business Center. “If you are building technology for consumers, you have to take in mind all types of consumers, and having people in the companies,… that look like the consumers… is important because they will be bringing their perspective, they will bring their culture and ideas.”
Women in the DFW tech and startup industry bring up common issues when discussing the difficulties they face when trying to get their company off of the ground. Beyond issues like failing to be taken as seriously as a male counterpart, women in tech can also face such disturbing things as having credentials questioned based on attractiveness or even sexual harassment.
“If there was something like this, especially when you’re so young in your career, you're not going to speak up… And I thought… I could have anonymously reported something… and who knows how many women after me who could have avoided the same kind of uncomfortable sexual harassment experience,” said Star Carter, Kanarys COO.
According to Payscale.com, even in 2019, women still average $0.79 in income for every dollar a man makes in the same field; many of the fields with the highest disparity in gender pay are in tech-related industries, reported CNBC in March. In 2018, only 4.8 percent of Fortune 500 companies had a female CEO behind the wheel. Not to mention, the U.S. lacks significant protections for sick and maternity leave when compared to European counterparts.
"having [diversity] in the companies is important, because they will be bringing their perspective, they will bring their culture and ideas."
The challenges facing women in business are many, and when you look at the prospects according to the statistics, it is no wonder why some could be turned away by a perceived lack of advancement, before they even begin their journey.
Mandy Price CEO of Kanarys, a Dallas-based DEI software and consulting company, said that through its work it has come to realize that just understanding the issues facing women is not enough to create a workplace that attracts, welcomes and maintains female employees.
“When we talk about intentionality [in diversity], I don’t think people realize the amount of biases that exist without you consciously trying to create that bias,” she said. “You don’t have to intentionally want to be malicious or intentionally want to discriminate; without actively seeking to counteract unconscious bias within your system - it’s there.”
But, true to the ranking in that FitSmallBusiness article, DFW is catering to its female entrepreneurs. When it sprouted up, Her.HQ, a women-centered coworking space opening in Oak Cliff in October, was the first of its kind, Cofounder and CEO Cassi Oesterling said. In the time they’ve been in their pop-up location in Downtown, they’ve had more than six times the amount of inquiries than expected, said Oesterling. In the last year, other female-centered spaces have opened up including, the Slate, the Riveter and the Women’s Business Center.
With women-focused spaces, comes women-focused programing. At Her HQ, book club meetings, cleansings, morning workouts, and workshops on things outside the startup ecosystem (like a tropical plant growing workshop) to not only help women succeed in business, but also find balance in their personal life. At the LiftFunds Women’s Business Center, programing is similarly working woman-centered. Part of the organizations multi-week incubator program focuses of “soft skills,” as well as the hard skills of business and entrepreneurship, such as self-care, work-life balance, assertiveness, and time management.
“We want to make sure that the women who come through this program are confident; we want to empower them, so that they can become successful entrepreneur,” Polk said.
Still things have improved from the days of the late 80s. According to Crunchbase.com, there are about 370 female founders, around 213 active women-started organizations, and more than 140 nonprofits founded by ladies in the Metroplex.
There are also programs around the region, such as the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UT Dallas, which was recently honored at the Tech Titans Gala for its work mentoring middle-school aged girls about tech, finance and entrepreneurship.
