On June 16, 2007, I visited Hazel Henderson in St. Augustine. I told Hazel about Miami, the city I had been living in for the past four years, where women are still caught in a 1970s battle for civil rights. It is so different from San Francisco, Denver, Ann Arbor, Chapel Hill and other U.S. cities I’d lived and worked in.
The men in charge promote women with low-cut dresses and play footsies with assistants at board room meetings. I made more money as a promotions girl than I did as a newspaper editor. My head was bruised from bumping into glass ceilings, and I was pretty much convinced that I just wasn’t that smart or cut out for the business world.
But Hazel set me straight. She listened to every word as we sipped coffee and talked about our lives, current events and our roles in the larger context.
Apparently, I was the one stuck in the 1970s! There are so many support networks out there to help women be successful like the Small Business Administration, ACCION USA, Womenable, Rachel’s Network and The LATINA Style Business Series, which I attended on Nov. 30, 2007 at the Doral Resort & Spa.
A panel of successful businesswomen, who own and operate companies in Miami, shared their tactics in battling the “machista mentality” since the 1960s.
“If a man tells me I’m beautiful at a meeting, I take it as a compliment and feel empowered to move on to business,” said Victoria Villalba, who started her multi-million dollar human resources company, Victoria and Associates 15 years ago. “I don’t compromise my values. I stand my ground.”
Maria de Lourdes Sobrino, CEO and founder of Lulu’s Desserts who had nothing like the Latina Style Business Series when she was first getting started, said she relied on her gut and passion to pull her through the tough times.
Patricia San Pedro accepted an award for Entrepreneur of the Year, Sonia Green
, director of The Florida Initiative GM Motors, talked about her ascent from Nuyorican Brooklyn to Avon and Cosmo International, and Liliam Lopez, president of the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, recalled her encouraging male mentor telling her, “Ay mijita, if you can’t do the job with your 4.0 GPA, who else can?”
Thanks to the women who conquered the business world of the 20th century, the next generation of women can dive straight into the next frontier of business: raising capital.
“Latinas are still starting businesses with their credit cards and taking out a second mortgage,” said Robert Bard, president and CEO of LATINA Style Magazine. “They risk everything, but this is not what is done in the general market. Women still face barriers when they go to the bank.”
The panelists were like my long-lost aunts who explained it to me in Business 101 for beginners. They didn’t assume I grew up hearing about term sheets and valuations in my blue-collar household, and explained that there is a chain of capital that women with no rich husband or daddy can follow before climbing to angel or venture capital investment rounds.
And so, the education continues — on January 23-25, 2008, I will be moderating a panel at the Women’s Congress in Miami Beach for women who are looking for the right tools to build our empires of the 21st century.
Hope to see you there!
Kemila Velan