Inspired or Frustrated, Women Are Starting Businesses of Their Own

I #LIVE FOR THIS ARTICLE. I started my first business with my friend Michelle when we were 19 and I've always had that spirit. Like many moms, I put love and marriage and that pursuit of happiness before my career. My mother Arlene Corbett told me, "as long as you can type, you could get work." She used her typing skills and elevated herself from secretarial positions to Marketing Manager at Smithsonian Magazine to Direct Marketing Manager at The New Yorker magazine at the age of 43. Unfortunately, she was hit by a car in 1989 and died a week later at 46 years old. I always keep her and my grandparents who emigrated here from St. Croix and St. Thomas in the Caribbean and Richmond, Virginia in the forefront of my mind to never, ever give up. I've had word processing, resume writing, wrote poetry and self-published and sold my first book. I knit and crochetted; and now baking because that entrepreneural spirit lives in me. I have always maintained a full time job since I was 16 and lived for other people's dreams. I took my grandest leap and moved myself and my children so that we could begin anew. A legal assistant is my full time JOB, but baking and creative things always lay in my path. I was just reading about getting a micro-loan to finance this forever dream. Sometimes you have to be brave to dream, but I always remember... dreams are free and moving gave me permission to live. Thank you for this article... I'm going to stop typing before I cry. #Love

I apologize for multiple posts but the New York Times seldom allows comments when there is an article about abortion. This article appears in today's newspaper. An anti-abortion "lawmaker" wants his mistress to have one. The article shows the maliciousness behind the male effort to control what women do with their bodies. It's simply about wanting to keep their supposed "power over" women - one half of the population of the world. Sorry boys, and girls who support them. Not now. Not ever again. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/us/politics/tim-murphy-abortion.html?...®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront

In a world where the Robber Baron/Radical religion men are trying to make robots out of people - or replace people with robots - women are stepping up to create an alternate economic stream. A "Rainbow Market" - the opposite of a black market that only cheats and destroys. NOW is the time for more Socially Conscious Women around the world to step up and take one-half the power - and control most of the finances - to bring stability, civility, social consciousness and relative peace to an out-of-balance male-model world. You Go, Girls!!!

I know so many women who have started or are planning to start their own business. Partly it is because they want to do it their own way and/or make money. Just like men. But partly it is for lifestyle issues. So they can have a business and a life too. I only know a few men for whom that is as important.

This is an inspiring piece. Keep them coming please, NYT!

I totally agree. I started my own consulting business 6 years ago after having my first child. It has been a great way to continue to do work I love and am good at a reduced scale on a schedule that I have more control over. While I miss being part of a larger organization, I know that will be something I can potentially do as the kids get older and I am ready to pick up the pace again. In the meantime, I am a huge proponent of the 80% schedule! Running my own business has also forced me to learn how to run a business and helped me strengthen skills that were not my best (marketing/business development).

This is on point. I left professional services to start my own company when I hit middle management and the sexism got real. Women need opportunities to prove their abilities in order to advance, and I got sick of being told that I "wasn't ready" or was "too outspoken" to get my shot leading a high-profile project.

Self-entrepreneurship appears to be the best antidote for the pervasive ageism experienced by so many women, including myself, in the job market.

This is a very sobering problem and I thank you for placing it in an international context. Since leaving academia, I, too, have encountered this exclusion and it is crushing.

I applaud these women. That bieng said, my daycare is $1300 per month and health insurance does not grow on trees. In this regard, European women have it much easier...

My mother ran her own business years and years ago in part because opportunities were so limited. These days, women are graduating at greater rates from college and law school and MBA programs but even starting out there is a pay gap between qualified women and men and that pay gap just grows day after day, year after year, decade after decade. I have a supportive corporate environment, women mentors, three and half month paid maternity leave, we offer part-time programs for men and women who want to work reduced schedules, we have a women's program where we meet and work on issues related pay and mentoring and women dropping out, etc. But, even in this supportive corporate environment pay inequality between men and women continues and is perpetuated because the men mostly control who gets paid what. Its frustrating and with the current administration it feels like we are going backwards in terms of laws to protect women.

Sometimes the NYT is so late to the party it's kinda laughable. I know literally dozens of women who have their own businesses or are self-employed -- including the extended family that cleans my house. Many fled large employers or never even bothered to try them.

I would gladly start my own business but what about health insurance? I need that and I can't take a chance that the ACA will survive while I build my business. My spouse cannot cover me.

I was very fortunate to be a teacher in NYS in my particular school district when I had my child. I had two months paid leave, was allowed to take an additional two months unpaid leave. I returned to work in a supportive environment. As a teacher, I was able to be both a working mom and an "almost" stay at home mother because of the week long winter and spring breaks and of course summer vacation. I know that some of my good fortune was the contract my NYSUT affiliated union had earned for me. I returned to work, kept up with changes in pedagogy and eventually retired from that district. The time I had with my new born was precious. I had the time to deal with all the emotional and hormonal issues postpartum. The real problem with taking time out for child care is the drop in work related skills. I think the idea of staying part time in a career position while child rearing is a good response to keeping talented women in the work place. Every woman should have the same advantages as I had.