Today, March 8th, is International Women’s Day. Women – and male allies – are protesting around the world for equal treatment or to preserve hard-won rights and honour the women who helped achieve them.
In Ireland, women are striking for repeal of the eighth amendment, which forbids abortion, and are rallying for women’s rights and mental health awareness. Across the U.K. there are protests and rallies pushing for gender equality. In London, Annie Lennox, Helen Pankhurst, Sadiq Khan and Bianca Jagger will lead the March for Women across Tower Bridge.
The strikes, from both paid and unpaid work, are being referred to as ‘A Day Without Women,’ aiming to highlight the important contributions women make to society.
According to recent research from Crunch Accounting, many women feel their contributions in the workplace are not equally valued and appreciated.
The increasing number of women venturing into franchising and entrepreneurship can be attributed to the growing dissatisfaction women have in traditional work spaces. Forty-one per cent of British women in the study said they experience patronising attitudes in their work; twenty per cent said they were not given pay raises; forty-eight per cent considered leaving their employment because of poor experiences and relations with bosses. Perhaps most shocking, forty per cent of women do not see a path of career progression in their current roles.
Franchising and opening their own businesses, then, seems a great solution for women who feel undervalued, mistreated, and trapped in the monotony of their work lives.
U.S. based chain 7-Eleven is striving to have more female franchisees, as evidenced by their recently announced Women’s Franchise Initiative Competition. Less than a third of franchise owners in the U.S. are female, which 7-Eleven apparently does not think is enough, so their contest, inviting women entrepreneurs to apply for a franchise, will award one woman a 7-Eleven franchise, fee-free, which is up to $190,000. The competition involves essay writing, interviews, and a public vote.
HomeXperts is running a similar promotion in the U.K., offering one free franchise worth £10,000 to a woman entrepreneur this week. Additionally, they are offering a free enhanced marketing package valued at £500 to anyone who joins the franchise network through the competition. To enter, you can include the phrase 'International Women's Day' in your Franchise Direct query.
Women choose to join a franchise for a variety of reasons, whether the flexible schedule, option to work from home, ability to be their own boss, or earning potential and expansion opportunities. Commonly, though, women become tired of being unable to advance to positions that live up to their potential, struggling to find leadership roles in their career fields, so they turn to entrepreneurship to provide the challenge they seek.
In the UK, the number of women franchisees has been on he rise for 25 years, though it is still significantly less than the male owners. The franchise industry continues to welcome more women into the fold; in April of last year, the British Franchise Association named its first ever female CEO, Pip Wilkins. They have also honoured multiple women as Franchisee of the Year in the past five years and are celebrating the increase of women franchisees in the UK to thirty per cent.
For International Women’s Day, whether you protest, strike, rally or celebrate, remember to take control of your situation and your future — and franchising could be the solution!