"Seeing" Female Social Entrepreneurs

A genuine answer to Teju's genuine question: "Where are all the Women?"

Each of us encounters more information in every moment of everyday life than we can possibly consciously process. So, as a natural survival mechanism, we developed ways to skim information, pick out the important bits and let the rest fade into the background. To recognize examples (and non-examples) of things, we form "schemas" for them.

So, when we're looking for apples, objects that are elongated...or orange...or metallic...are automatically (efficiently) rejected. These schemas save us enormous amounts of time. In fact, individuals unable to form them are usually unable to function in society.

But what happens when something contradicts our schemas?

Barring some kind of conscious effort, we simply don't see them. They don't register as members of the set we're looking for. With conscious effort we can get past the double-takes, and reconcile the mismatch with a conscious exception--that often comes out in language (eg. "male nurse.")

Women simply don't fit most people's schema of the entrepreneur--so when they look around for entrepreneurs, they see men. (Case in point: GOOD magazine writes about the innovative Thrust Fund, and calls Kjerstin Erikson a man.)

Perhaps it's because women place greater value on teams and networks and tend to exhibit less of the "charismatic lone wolf" leadership style we've come to expect from entrepreneurs. Perhaps it's because the organizations they lead tend to experience less of the financial volatility and drama we associate with entrepreneurship. Perhaps it's just good old-fashioned sexism.

Whatever the reason, the fact remains that despite their under-representation in research, funding and the media, there are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of female social entrepreneurs out there working for sustainable social change--and doing a bang-up job of it.

It's time we all learned to "see" them.