Amaia, Agurne, Fátima, Beatriz, Susana, Miren, Marian, Arantza, Idoia, María, Amaya, Elena, Mari Carmen, Silvia… are just a few names of the women who once decided to gamble for the entrepreneurship and nowadays, as EmakumeEkin partners, work from our respective professional areas and sections on behalf of the entrepreneurship. An entrepreneurship which, in this occasion, has women names.
Why EmakumeEkin? What is it so special about EmakumeEkin that the others do not have?
EmakumeEkin is a non-profit organization in which we work to promote, support in a specific way and develop women entrepreneurship.
EmakumeEkin emerged as a result of the lack of women’s visibility in the business world and with the trust placed on the fact that creating a company and supporting women entrepreneurs (and intrapreneurs), our contribution to the society will be more complete and, I dare to say, real. Because in EmakumeEkin we believe that the female entrepreneurship will contribute to boost a sustainable and inclusive economic growth, and to encourage social and economic change, which will benefit the entire society.
For that reason and because it is, if I’m not wrong, the first women entrepreneurship organization in the Basque Country, I think it is worth to be part of it. And because we assume that achieving a goal is easier if you do it in company, I encourage you to be a part of this organization that, in order to reach its goals, it offers help services, consultancy, training, mentoring and coaching, among others.
But, who are the ones who offer those services? Women who are part of EmakumeEkin, those who once decided that they may start and promote new initiatives from their working places and different professional areas. Because we believe that the desire, the knowledge, the experiences and the competencies that we have are our strengths, those that complement us perfectly. And that is what we want to share with those women who want to or even need it.
While I write these lines, I cannot stop thinking about one of our big CHALLENGES (that I hope you share with me): the need to break the so-called glass ceiling barrier, known like that internationally since 1984. Yes, you read it right, I am not wrong this time. In 1984, Gay Bryant, in that moment editor of the Working Woman magazine, referred to the glass ceiling as the barriers that working women found in their professional development. It is said that the term “glass ceiling barrier” was definitely coined in the Wall Street Journal article written by Carol Hymwitz and Timothy Schellhardtse. They were the ones who described the artificial and invisible barriers to which working and highly skilled women were exposed and stopped them to reach higher hierarchy levels in the business world, regardless of their merits and achievements. However, it is not only in senior positions that the glass ceiling appears.
But let’s go back to EmakumeEkin. If you want to contribute to this social and economic change that I was telling you about just a moment ago, to support and join intrapreneur women and to break the glass ceiling, we are looking forward to meeting you in EmakumeEkin, the women organization that starts with an “e” of entrepreneurship in good company.
If you would like to contact EmakumeEkin, you can do it through its website or through the different existing social networks… even by phone. Are you ready to be part of EmakumeEkin? We are waiting for you.
Today, I want to end this post with an announcement that is really important for me and I’m so grateful for. Thanks to María Ubierna Quintanilla, Translation and Interpreting student in the University of Valladolid, these posts are going to be available in English, so we could reach more people with the same concerns that we have, but due to the linguistic barrier, for the moment, it was limiting us. María will translate the posts, which will be supervised by me, and we will launch them on Tuesdays or Wednesdays of the following week. So THANK YOU, again, María for your support. Oh, and swiftly, we will do the same with Basque. Because working as a team is always easier.
And, of course, thank you very much to all of you for your support, for following me and for gambling for the intra and entrepreneurship.
I wish you all a magic week. Arantza.