Not just a slogan: Why we need to take ‘girl power’ seriously

Who’s been watching TV lately? A bit more than usual? Anyone seen Bridgerton? Need I even ask! Well, I’m obsessed and in awe of the creator - Shonda Rhimes. She runs her own production company, Shondaland, and is a true trailblazer. What I love about Shonda is that she owns her success. There’s a speech she gave a little while ago where she talks about being one of the highest-paid people in television. And she says, “On behalf of women everywhere… I will brag. How’s that for girl power?”

 Speaking of female power, we’ve seen some extraordinary examples of women leading, and also really owning it in the past 12 months. Women like Dr. Sarah Gilbert in the UK, lead researcher on the Oxford vaccine and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the first African and first woman to become head of the World Trade Organisation. And we’ve made progress in the boardroom as well with more than a third of FTSE 350 board positions now held by women.

But of course, even as women have excelled, this pandemic has thrown immense challenges at them. Women are falling out of the workforce at higher rates than men. And many that remain at their jobs have been engaged in an impossible juggling act – looking after children while trying to deliver at work. 

We see these impacts playing out when it comes to female entrepreneurs. A six month survey that Facebook ran last year in partnership with the OECD and World Bank found that in the UK, 34.8% of businesses owned by women reported being closed, compared to 17.9% of businesses owned by men. Women are also less likely to receive financial support and are concentrated in sectors which were particularly impacted by lockdown measures. Globally, 41% of female business leaders also said that household chores impacted their work compared to 26 percent of men. According to the Rose Review update out today, over three-quarters (77%) of female business owners found managing their business in the pandemic stressful, compared to 55% of male entrepreneurs. 

Despite the sobering statistics, we women are optimists! The Rose Review also showed that despite the hardships of the pandemic – 1 in 10 female entrepreneurs plan to start a business in 2021. We’ve also seen this reflected on our platforms with the number of Instagram business profiles in the UK that mention ‘female’ or ‘woman-owned’ growing by over 40% since November. 

I was lucky to grow up around strong women who ran their own businesses. My grandma ran a haberdashery business and my mum still runs a catering firm. Female entrepreneurialism surrounded me from an early age and I got to see that running a business can be unbelievably rewarding. Not just for the people who set up businesses, but for their families, their employees and their communities too.

Studies show that when women work, they invest 90% of their income back into their families, compared with 35% for men. By focusing on girls and women, businesses and governments can spur economic progress, expand markets, and improve health and education outcomes for everyone.

This is why Facebook created the #SheMeansBusiness programme. It’s our long-term commitment to supporting women’s economic empowerment by providing digital skills training, financial education and opportunities to expand business connections and networks. Since we launched the programme in 2016, we've trained 1 million women in 38 markets around the world. This year, as we mark the fifth anniversary of this programme, we’re committed to training 70,000 women across the EMEA region. We’re also partnering with NatWest to support their Dream Bigger initiative across our platforms to give 15,000 young women free virtual entrepreneurship training. 

All around us, women are building businesses and dreaming up the next big thing. But too often, they’re doing this despite the world around them – not because of it. It’s time to tackle this problem head on. Women have helped us get through this pandemic, and they’ll help us recover from it. It’s high time we started honouring – and paying for – their labour. Because girl power isn’t just a slogan. It’s literally what keeps our society going.