Feminist Business Histories and Heritage: Learning From Our Foremothers

When we know our shared history, we can build collective wisdom.

3 Classes, 6 weeks, to develop shared feminist business praxis.

Feminists have created many successful businesses that demonstrated and promoted feminist values and visions.

These feminist businesses were innovative. Revolutionary. And largely forgotten. 

Few people know that these businesses ever existed, and even fewer remember what they were about, what practices and strategies worked for them, and what led to their closures— or their longevity.

Without knowing feminist businesses’ history, we can’t learn from their mistakes. Worse, we can’t build on their achievements.

Starting in February 2023, we will reconnect with the legacy of feminist business, and draw from their experiences some shared principles and guidance for current and future feminist businesses.

Our first class is Tuesday, February 7, from 4:30-6:00 ET, on Zoom.

______

Overview

In this class, we will collaborate to create a shared understanding of feminist business history, and to draw lessons and unanswered questions from the stories we gather. We will produce a file/living repository of resources on the businesses we consider. We will create a document that identifies feminist business practices and challenges from history, along with citations, that we can all use as a resource. We will decide together how to share this document with other feminist business folks.

At the end of this course, we will have created a cohort of feminist business advocates who can teach others about and continue to develop knowledge of our shared feminist business history. This cohorts’ knowledge will support feminist business coaches, mentors, and practitioners who want to build on rather than repeat the lessons of feminist business.

At the end of this course, you will be well-versed in the history of a particular feminist business or sector, able to explain this history to another interested feminist business person. You will have developed some wisdom from the experience of earlier feminists that you can use in designing your future business activities.

As a facilitator and active participant myself, I expect that our shared work will help me lock in what I’ve learned from my independent reading in feminist business history. Our work together will also help me examine and expand my definitions of feminist business and help me develop better criteria and tools for guiding feminist businesses.

This class will prototype a collaborative format that we can use as we build a learning program for feminist business practitioners, mentors, coaches, and teachers.

** Note, the companies and industries we will consider are largely based in the USA with two that were based in the UK. Several of these businesses operated in Canada. However, there are no Canadian businesses in the set that I am offering.

Together, our work will advance feminist business practice.

For more details,