As you know, I’m all about local. Buy local. Support local. Basically, whatever you do – do it locally. So I hesitated when I was asked to moderate a panel in NYC with women business leaders from around the world. Global business isn’t my area of expertise, so how exactly would I do this…and make it interesting for everyone watching.
It was a question I kept asking myself. Even when I replied, “Yes, I would love to.”
The talk was a parallel event to a bunch of acronyms: the CSW70 (the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women) along with the W20 (Women 20). W20 members come from the G20 (group of 20 largest economies).
Another way of putting that: The talk was part of something I had no experience in and had no knowledge of.
But then I stepped into this new, global world. Well actually, I didn’t step into it, I just kind of leaned out a window and looked around. But I saw so much.
One of the panelists, Lina Tsaltampasi, is from Greece, and she influences business and policy around the world, travelling to different countries to speak about empowering women in all sectors of the economy. But more important, she is an angel investor. So she doesn’t just talk. She acts.
She told the story of a project she was part of, similar to “Shark Tank,” where entrepreneurs would pitch their business idea to investors. One woman pitched her idea and received no funding. A few months later, Lina worked with a man to have him pitch the same idea, in exactly the same way to exactly the same investors. He received more funding for the original project than he had asked for. When they brought the discrepancy to the investors, who were all men, they said there had to be some difference other than gender. Lina feels strongly there was not.
Another panelist, Ingrid Soto-Tornero from Mexico, talked about her family’s vineyard, which she runs (and which I would like to visit!). She described a meeting where she pitched opening a restaurant on-site. She said she prepared for weeks, had all the numbers and all the details she would present to the board – all family members.
While she was telling the story, I almost interrupted her to say, “You’re not going to say what I think you’re going to say…”
But she did. Her family turned her down.
And then they opened a restaurant months later when a man came along and pitched the same idea to the board, although he asked for – and received – more money. The project didn’t end well.
The panelists talked about how hard they have had to work to advance in their careers as women. They talked about the difficulties of being a working mom – the guilt, the exhaustion, the mental burden. One panelist talked about how so many female entrepreneurs underestimate the value of their business, how many women downplay what they have achieved.
After the panel, I came right back to South Jersey, a place I love, but I now know that women around the world are more similar than I ever imagined. It’s refreshing, and comforting. I’m still all about local, but it seems everyone’s local is very, very similar. We all might be closer to each other than we think, even if we’re actually far away.
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