Celebrate Women’s Equality Day on August 26: Invest in Women
Here are four ideas to keep pushing for change
On August 26, 2024, we’re celebrating Women’s Equality Day here at LBT. The United States Congress designated this day to commemorate the 1920 certification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. It’s a day where we pause to recognize the strenuous journey for those who worked to secure for women this essential component of the democratic process. The work to expand equal rights for women continues—it’s work we must do every day—but today is a special moment of celebration and reflection, as well as a day to propagate ideas to continue to improve.
This year the United Nations launched an Invest-in-Women global campaign, to highlight that investing in women is a human rights issue. The argument is simple: for the many crises facing the world, there are solutions that involve empowering women, and empowering women makes things better not just for women but for everyone. For instance, closing gender gaps in employment could increase GDP per capita by 20%.
I’m passionate about education, so let’s focus on this domain. More educated women mean significant positive outcomes for society. At the global level, when there are more educated women, we observe lower infant and maternal mortality rates, higher national growth rates, dramatic increases for lifetime earnings for girls, and many more such substantial benefits for all.
The story of women in higher education in the US is an interesting example of a positive change trajectory. In 1967, less than 20% of college students were women, and the achievement gaps between men and women were stark, in favor of men. In 1972, Title IX of the Education Act was signed into law, banning gender-based discrimination in schools or other educational programs receiving Federal financial assistance. This landmark law has turned out to be a critical turning point, leading to enrollment by men and women that was about equal in 1987, and the beginning of those achievement gaps narrowing. Today, 58% of undergraduate students in the US are women, and women students have a lower likelihood of failing courses than male students, have better retention rates, and have better graduation rates. Despite these impressive improvements, employment outcomes for women with higher education degrees lag behind those for men, facing gender wage gaps, especially in high-paying fields, and especially for women from minority groups.
So, we’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go still. How do we keep pushing for change?
Here are four ideas that I hope resonate with the Latin Biz Today community:
- Provide training and mentoring.Women in the small- and medium-sized business space benefit from access to opportunities to learn new skills related to their business, and from the networking opportunities that can be embedded in such training.
- Launch a fund or an angel network that’s dedicated to investing in Latina-led businesses.We know that Latina founders receive a smaller proportion of venture capital, even though on average they have higher returns.
- Create microfinancing opportunities or digital lending platforms to provide affordable and accessible loans for women entrepreneurs, especially in underserved communities.Women are more likely to face barriers to traditional financing due to lack of collateral or credit history.
- Invest in women-owned businesses, and if you don’t have access to sufficient women-owned vendors, develop a platform or initiative to connect a marketplace that vets and aggregates these suppliers.
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As mentioned earlier, investing in women is good for everyone, because when you improve opportunities for a subset of the population (in this case, half!), you improve things for all. Happy Women’s Equality Day!
Related content:
Latin Biz Today Celebrates International Women’s Day
