Virtual event to celebrate female founders

female entrepreneurs, women business network, small business, tech industry founders

The Australia and New Zealand arm of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO) will be celebrating female founders in Australia on 19 November with a virtual all-day event for female entrepreneurs.

WEDO was founded in 2013 to bring awareness to the 250 million girls living in poverty globally that deserve to be given a chance in life, while simultaneously inspiring and empowering the four billion women on the planet to reach their potential. WEDO works globally to empower women and girls to become active participants in the economy by igniting a network of women leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs to initiate startups, drive economic expansion, and advance communities around the world.

WEDO has had the 19 November proclaimed by the United Nations to empower women and girls globally to alleviate the gender gap and poverty. To help spread the word, WEDO has appointed ambassadors in the Australia and New Zealand area, these ambassadors are: Theme Rains, Australia; Tara Singh, NZ; Peace Mitchell, Queensland; Rachael Ferguson, WA; Serina Bird, ACT; Caroline Kennedy, VIC; and Candice Meisels, NSW.

The Global Ambassadors work globally to spread the WEDO grassroots mission and message to empower women and girls to become active participants in the economy by igniting a network of women leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs to initiate start-ups, drive economic expansion and advance communities around the world.

Theme Rains, WEDO Ambassador for Australia said, “202 years. That’s how long it’s predicted it will take for women to achieve gender equality. Globally women-led startups attract less than three per cent of VC funding.”

Nasdaq, Google For Start Ups, MIT Innovation Labs, WEGate – European Commission, Girls Scouts have all joined this year to as partners with the aim of bringing awareness to WEDO’s mission to empower the four billion women worldwide to be catalysts for change and uplift over 250 million girls living in poverty worldwide.

“Our message of supporting and empowering women in business to help uplift girls living in poverty is more needed, pivotal, and impacting now more than ever! It’s estimated that the global pandemic is having a deeper effect on women’s jobs, and gender inequality is rising,” Wendy Diamond, Founder and CEO of WEDO said. “Women make up 39 per cent of the world’s employment force, but recently due to the pandemic have lost 53 per cent of jobs worldwide.”

The WEDO Student and Global Ambassadors are celebrated in 144 countries and 110 universities and has convened with business leaders, government officials, and civil society to collaborate and find solutions in critical areas of entrepreneurship ecosystems, education, and policy creation to empower women in business.

“Historically, women worldwide have been underpaid, undervalued, underrepresented, underfunded and underestimated,” Diamond said. “We are dedicated, determined and driven to change this global imbalance. The objective of our WEDO Ambassadors in 2021 is to strategically scale and deepen our impact globally. Empowering women worldwide and investing in their futures helps to drive and promote economic vitality and security locally and globally.

“Twenty-first century leadership skills, such as cooperation, communication, and sharing are more commonly associated with women,” Diamond added. “We want to celebrate the unwavering positives that women entrepreneurs bring to the global economy as well as inspire and support future generations of women entrepreneurs.”