Are women who run businesses considered entrepreneurs?

I have been researching women entrepreneurs. Go ahead and think of one … other than Bobbie Brown or Vera Wang or another goddess of our generation who runs some other fabulously feminine business. In the high-tech realm, you might think of Carly Fiorina with all the press surrounding her tenure at Hewlett-Packard, but I have to tell you that the women who start and run businesses (about 50% of them, mind you) are just not considered. businessmen.

Does a person have to launch a high-tech business to be considered an entrepreneur? Here, women have single-digit percentages of the total field for C-level and VP high-tech and science positions. We don’t look like Mark Zuckerberg, we don’t act like Donald Trump, and we tend to speak very differently to “men” at startup boot camps. We are not as confident in our ideas, we do not tell as good a story as men about the future of our idea, and we are not good at drawing gifts from our relationships with suppliers and partners.

Yet we create wonderful work environments that promote long-term revenue growth and collaboration with our clients and strategic partners. Does this serve us in the long term? However, it is difficult to measure, in my experience, I have seen many more men experience the shooting star effect than women. In fact, if you ask around what an entrepreneur looks like and acts like, most people watch pizza / beer late at night on a computer, not with a baby in their arms. (Great article from WITI.)

I must say that I am seeing a change in this social vision of entrepreneurs. Last week, I attended an operations meeting at a pre-launch startup and the founder’s baby diaper bag was on the counter by the front door. Mom came looking for the little boy before we dived into the reunion, but not before everyone (the men and I) had a chance to lull the likely next-generation entrepreneur.

This is not a women’s problem or a men’s problem or a social problem. It is a sign of the changing of the times, and there is nothing but one opportunity for all when we invite women to play with entrepreneurship.

What is my point Treat the girl who sells lemonade on the corner the same way you treat the boy who throws papers: like a new owner of a budding business. Treat the young business leader in your organization the same way you treat the man and invite them to participate in your culture of innovation. I – I will work to get these women to speak up and ask for more.