Every year since 2014, Women’s Entrepreneurship Day has been dedicated to recognizing women’s accomplishments in the business field, promoting gender inclusion in entrepreneurship and inspiring the next generations of women. This day serves as a reminder of the challenges women overcome in their journey to become entrepreneurs.
To celebrate, Annenberg Radio News highlighted some of the women entrepreneurs at our own school, like Mischa Chaikovsky, a sophomore studying business who created Mebli, a somewhat exclusive marketplace for students.
“So my sister and I co-founded Mebli last year, which is a second-hand online marketplace for college students. So you need an .edu email to sign up, meaning that it’s just more secure and verified than other platforms like Facebook Marketplace or eBay,” said Chaikovsky, “and we’re selling clothes, furniture, dorm-specific furniture, or game tickets.”
She describes the barriers they have faced as two young women in a male-dominated field.
“I honestly think that there is pressure to show up more as a woman in the sense that it is harder to be taken seriously,” Chaikovsky said. “But I think my sister and I together have worked on this by just ensuring that we know our personal worth, and going into any new situation or meeting any new people and presenting ourselves to our greatest ability.”
Chaikovsky also shares her advice for the next generation of young women who may want to start their own companies.
“I would just say, ‘Hold yourself high.’ Find a group of people that can support you because there are people who will and want to support you, regardless if that’s a man or a woman,” she said.
Paris Gapp, a junior studying business administration, described her journey launching a business five years ago.
“It’s a small college embroidered sweatshirt business. It’s called Stitch by Paris,” Gapp said. “I just started making them because a bunch of people kept reaching out to me - like my siblings, friends, parents or whoever else, and so it kind of took off. And I’ve made a few hundred now.”
She shares how she appreciates the celebration of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, for it recognizes women in business and encourages other women to try entrepreneurship despite gender stereotypes.
”I think a lot of the time people are like, pretty scared to get out there, especially because I feel like business is a very dominated male field,” Gapp said. “I’ve even taken a bunch of entrepreneurship classes throughout my high school, and also I’m currently in one at USC. Even, if you look around the room now, I feel like the ratio of guys to girls is like 80-20. Even my [entrepreneurship class] in high school was actually just two girls and the rest were all guys.”
USC Marshall School of Business adjunct professor Dr. Jennifer Walske specializes in entrepreneurship, and believe women who are pursuing their own ideas are empowering to future generations. Walske advises women who are hesitant to start their own business to consider where their passions lie.
“Entrepreneurship is hard... regardless of what gender you are or what your background is, because it’s high risk. And I think the entrepreneurs that decide to pursue it have a lot of passion about their idea, and they’re sort of excited by that challenge and excited by the autonomy that comes to being your own person,” Walske said.
She points out the benefits of working for yourself: “You have your own hours, even though if you’re working all the time. And if that’s the type of thing that really excites you, then I would just suggest that there are resources there to... de-risk it, you know? And that is getting an incubator, creating a network, creating an ecosystem.”
Feel free to support these women’s businesses, and for those who wish to pursue entrepreneurship themselves, be sure to check out campus resources like the USC Marshall/ Greif Incubator.