.

Around the world, in developed and developing economies alike, the status of women is tied to the opportunities they have to engage in the economic sphere. When a woman acquires the income to support herself and her family, she finds independence, self-reliance, stability, and respect from her community. This raises the status of women in society and, at the same time, improves the local economy of countries. Operating under these beliefs, the Center for International Private Enterprise expanded on their 2009 conference to showcase this year’s special conference on Democracy that Delivers for Women.

The conference was attended by several women who have invested their careers in improving the economic status of women worldwide, including Ambassador Melanne Verveer, United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues; Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, a journalist focusing on women’s issues in Afghanistan and author of The Dressmaker of Khair Khana; and Selima Ahmad, president and founder of the Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Almost all the of the speakers at the two day conference agreed that the best way to build economic prosperity and increase gender equality across the globe was by building the economic empowerment of women.

“Economic security is vital to women’s confidence, and to their well-being. It gives women the ability to be more effective at attacking injustice in their own communities,” stated Henriette Kolb, CEO of the Cherie Blair Foundation. She spoke on the importance of brining the latest technology to women entrepreneurs, echoing a theme throughout the conference reflecting on the changing faces of digital technology and social media, and the political implications of virtual networks beginning to ripple throughout the developing world.

As an argument for women's economic empowerment, speakers frequently tossed out the statistic that 90 percent of what a woman earns is reinvested in her family.

Mary Schnack, National Founding Partner and on the executive advisory board for Women Impacting Public Policy, related the impact women can have in the political process. In the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign season, “we were tired of being called ‘soccer moms,’ that people were campaigning to us as ‘soccer moms!’ Dammit, we’re businesswomen! Whether we work for someone else or own our own businesses, we want to be campaigned to as businesswomen!” She explained how her institute made it the goal to make small business part of the campaign, going to both the Democratic and Republican conventions, and successfully made small businesses a key party of the 2008 campaign. She continued to call for women to be recognized more widely as leaders, even if women may approach leadership differently.

The Center for International Private Enterprise is one of the four core institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Center focuses on several areas related to business and democratic governance, including anti-corruption advocacy, bringing people out of the informal economy through business registration processes, legal and regulatory reform, and business association development.

The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.

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www.diplomaticourier.com

Democracy that Delivers – for Women!

July 6, 2011

Around the world, in developed and developing economies alike, the status of women is tied to the opportunities they have to engage in the economic sphere. When a woman acquires the income to support herself and her family, she finds independence, self-reliance, stability, and respect from her community. This raises the status of women in society and, at the same time, improves the local economy of countries. Operating under these beliefs, the Center for International Private Enterprise expanded on their 2009 conference to showcase this year’s special conference on Democracy that Delivers for Women.

The conference was attended by several women who have invested their careers in improving the economic status of women worldwide, including Ambassador Melanne Verveer, United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues; Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, a journalist focusing on women’s issues in Afghanistan and author of The Dressmaker of Khair Khana; and Selima Ahmad, president and founder of the Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Almost all the of the speakers at the two day conference agreed that the best way to build economic prosperity and increase gender equality across the globe was by building the economic empowerment of women.

“Economic security is vital to women’s confidence, and to their well-being. It gives women the ability to be more effective at attacking injustice in their own communities,” stated Henriette Kolb, CEO of the Cherie Blair Foundation. She spoke on the importance of brining the latest technology to women entrepreneurs, echoing a theme throughout the conference reflecting on the changing faces of digital technology and social media, and the political implications of virtual networks beginning to ripple throughout the developing world.

As an argument for women's economic empowerment, speakers frequently tossed out the statistic that 90 percent of what a woman earns is reinvested in her family.

Mary Schnack, National Founding Partner and on the executive advisory board for Women Impacting Public Policy, related the impact women can have in the political process. In the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign season, “we were tired of being called ‘soccer moms,’ that people were campaigning to us as ‘soccer moms!’ Dammit, we’re businesswomen! Whether we work for someone else or own our own businesses, we want to be campaigned to as businesswomen!” She explained how her institute made it the goal to make small business part of the campaign, going to both the Democratic and Republican conventions, and successfully made small businesses a key party of the 2008 campaign. She continued to call for women to be recognized more widely as leaders, even if women may approach leadership differently.

The Center for International Private Enterprise is one of the four core institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Center focuses on several areas related to business and democratic governance, including anti-corruption advocacy, bringing people out of the informal economy through business registration processes, legal and regulatory reform, and business association development.

The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.