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Rural women more likely to be entrepreneurs

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According to the Global Entrepreneruship Monitor in London:

Women are driving enterprise in the rural economy and are almost twice as likely to set up their own businesses as those living in towns….
“This isn’t just about baking pies and selling them,” said Rebecca Harding, executive director of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. “It is about solving rural problems and plugging the gaps in the market that have arisen through the decline of the rural economy.”

You can read more at Management-issues. (Found on the SmallBusiness.com Newswire.)

Meanwhile, our friend from New Zealand Natalie Ferguson is talking about Why Women and Mean Do Business Differently. Ferguson shares a real-life story most women will understand:

I will always remember Tim and my first visit to our accountant, where he sat in front of both of us and said “make sure you get a trust [legal agreement] because you can never trust girlfriends”. Did it matter that I was Tim’s business partner (or for that matter that I was there)? No. Because girls are girlfriends first and business people second.

While some men cheer women on, support women’s efforts, and applaud women’s successes, some men are still stuck actively opposing women in leadership. And in my area, the majority are (more or less) silently disapproving of at least some of women’s roles.

But here’s my point: without women, your whole small town economy would be sunk. You need us as enterpreneurs, managers, leaders, and workers whether you like that fact or not.

And for you supportive men who think this is an overreaction for no reason, I promise you that women still face basic discrimination all the time. Really. Natalie’s story is NOT an aberration. And it is twice as bad in rural areas.

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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.

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