Milestone Achievements
Every October, the Small Business Administration honors the “milestone achievements of today’s women-owned businesses”. And by honor, I mean they declare the month as National Women’s Small Business Month and they add a paragraph to their website. It is the government after all, so I wasn’t really expecting a custom bouquet of the freshest flowers for my “milestone achievements”. Plus, I would probably have to pay taxes on the flowers at a 35% gift tax rate, so I guess I’ll stick with the paragraph on the website.
But at any rate, in 1972, there were around 400,000 women owned businesses in the United States. And as of this year, there are around 13 million women owned businesses generating $1.9 trillion dollars in annual revenue. That is significant growth in just over 50 years.
By 1972, my great grandmother, Pliney Phelps, had already passed away. She lived her entire life and never even once left Butler County, Missouri. It’s pretty easy to see how she wasn’t one of the 400,000 empowered to own a business, despite being a wonderful cook and an even better baker. I never met her but I doubt anyone was telling her she should totally be selling pies to people as a job. My suspicion is that the 400,000 then were more driven by need to support their family in limited circumstances than to fill a personal quest for fulfillment.
In 1972, Jeanne was graduating from high school and getting married. She actually was interested in joining the military or going to college. But because no one told women in the 1970s in rural Missouri that they could do either of those, she just didn’t. (We probably dodged a bullet on the military thing…she can’t whisper to save her life and undoubtedly the enemy would hear the whole plan of attack while she was telling the person next to her immediately before the start of battle.)
Of course, as you already know, Jeanne’s life unfolds to open PJP twice - once in the 1990s and again with me in 2014. And in my opinion, that’s less of a milestone event and more an event of significant bravery. And over the course of my childhood, I watched Jeanne rage against the expected. Never one for an 8-5 office job, I’ve seen her try her hand at real estate, professional wallpapering, working as a seamstress, and once she even sold satellite television packages door to door. She’s nothing but unconventional, thankfully. Had she been, I likely wouldn’t be writing this here right now for you.
It is entirely possible that by the time Ellery has adult children, or maybe grandchildren, that when her daughter or granddaughter decides to open a business, no one will ask her:
Is she has really thought it through and if she’s sure she wants to proceed with her plan;
How she plans to finance her idea on her own and if she has someone who can sign with her;
What her husband’s credit score is;
Who will watch her children while she works;
How she plans to work, parent, volunteer, give back to the community, and look great while doing it all.
It is possible, just within another generation or two, that a woman deciding to open a business Is met with the same zeal and excitement as a man opening a business (because literally no one asks men who will watch his kids while he starts a new venture). But that’s only if we keep supporting women in small business and normalizing the options available to us. None of this should be more or less difficult because of our gender, but it should be equal. And when that happens, undoubtedly we all benefit. We can’t wait.
