The SBA (@SBAgov) will be hosting a Twitter chat on women-owned small businesses on Thursday, October 26, at 3:00 p.m. ET/12:00 p.m. PT. They’ll be sharing tips and resources to help women start, grow and succeed in business. Follow along with the hashtag #SBAchat.

Linda McMahon, the Administrator of the US Small Business Administration, starts this article off by saying, “Seems hard to believe today, but thirty years ago, some state laws prevented women from getting a business loan without having a male relative co-sign for it.”

I had to admit, even I was shocked by that. Accounting is a field that’s not overrun by males, thankfully, and I’ve had no problem holding my own when confronted with discrimination, harassment, and condescension — though it’s happened all-too-often, especially with male lawyers, consultants, and financial advisers. (There was one time in particular when I was taken so off-guard that I didn’t stand up for myself, and actually had to sit at a side table while a male co-presenter stood at the lectern and took credit for a lecture that I wrote. I’ll never let that happen again.)

At this point, women-owned businesses are the fastest-growing sector of the economy, according to the National Association of Women Business Owners. And October is National Women’s Small Business Month, in honor of the creation on October 25, 1988 of the National Women’s Business Council.

Today, 9.9 million businesses in the U.S. are owned by women, they employ more than 8 million workers, provide more than $264 billion in wages and salaries to employees, and contribute $1.4 trillion in sales to our national economy. The SBA’s Office of Advocacy describes them as an “economic powerhouse”.

But we’re far from done with the work it takes to right so many years of wrongs — so much inequity, as well as cultural mores that leave us all affected with subconscious sexism. Let’s take a moment each day this month to pause and check our actions and reactions; and maybe it will last us at least part-way into November.

The SBA (@SBAgov) will be hosting a Twitter chat on women-owned small businesses on Thursday, October 26, at 3:00 p.m. ET/12:00 p.m. PT. They’ll be sharing tips and resources to help women start, grow and succeed in business. Follow along with the hashtag #SBAchat.

Source: Supporting Women in Business | The U.S. Small Business Administration | SBA.gov