Coast river business journal., May 18, 2022, Page 13, Image 13

COAST RIVER BUSINESS JOURNAL
BUSINESS COMMENT
MAy 2022 • 13
Jessica Newhall
The Seaside Chamber of Commerce recently held a Women in Business leadership series.
A ‘love letter to women’
By Jessica Newhall
Clatsop Community College
Small Business Development Center
This past March we celebrated Women’s History
Month.
Rooted in the 1970s, this celebration is a call for
attention to the contributions of women to society, cul-
ture and our world.
Over the years it has become a powerful platform
through which individual women’s stories have risen,
sometimes from obscurity, to become beacons of light
and hope.
The struggles and accomplishments of iconic
women through the ages such as Susan B. Anthony,
Amelia Earhart, Lilly Ledbetter, Malala Yousafzai,
Greta Thunberg and so many others shed light on how
perseverance, courage, intelligence and ingenuity have
triumphed in the face of oppression and opposition.
We could look at the women who have broken
through the glass ceiling in business, government and
industry and say, “we’ve made it!”
Unfortunately, that simply is not the case — yet.
There are still wage gaps, bias, inequality in access
to capital, and work environments where the unspo-
ken, and sometimes spoken message demonstrates a
glaring need for improvement.
Each year there are new stories of trial and tri-
umph to tell. Here locally, the Seaside Chamber of
Commerce produced a wonderful and fresh Women in
Business leadership series that featured brave and bold
women who are leading the way in our community.
The Women in Business initiative is the award-win-
ning brainchild of the Seaside chamber’s marketing
and communications lead, Katie McCloud.
She and her colleagues interviewed over nearly
two dozen selected women and featured their sto-
ries on social media. The culmination of this project
was an impactful video compilation of the interviews
that McCloud referred to as a “love letter to women”
that was debuted at a reception celebrating the women
leaders.
It was one of the proudest moments of my life to be
amongst the ranks of women like Karen Emmerling,
Lori Lum, Marla Olstedt, Marci Utti, Ruth Swenson
and so many others who have broken through barri-
ers and overcome the odds to reach their positions and
achieve success.
The reception was filled with incredible camarade-
rie and joy in the celebration of one another and the
video brought us even closer together as we watched
tears, laughter, hope, struggles and joy pour forth as the
stories were told.
At some point during the reception, a question was
posed to me: “Do you think there should be other types
of leaders included next year?”
He meant, should it include men?
My response to him was “when there is equity in
the business world and workplace, you will no longer
need the ‘women’ part.”
The reality is, despite the progress that our society
has made to achieve greater equity, we still have work
to do — and it starts with recognizing we each have a
role in creating a culture that sees the gaps and works
to address them proactively and deliberately.
Wikipedia defines culture as “an umbrella term
which encompasses the social behavior, institutions,
and norms found in human societies, as well as the
knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities
and habits of the individuals in these groups.” How
women are treated in the workplace reflects how we
treat and talk about women in our society.
You may feel powerless to make changes, but you
can make a difference.
The next time you see an all-white, all-male lead-
ership team or board of directors or you are in a lead-
ership meeting and there is not a single woman present
other than in an administrative role, question why that
is. Be brave enough to suggest adding a woman — not
only for numbers but also so that you can tap into her
unique and valuable perspective.
If there has never been a woman in a particular job,
make sure there is a woman candidate in the next hir-
ing round. Before you turn down a woman for a job
or a loan, make sure to check that you’re not applying
gender bias to your decision. Don’t penalize women
when they need to take time off to care for sick kids
because they make less than their husband. Instead,
make allowances or create special programs that sup-
port them. Until we solve the wage gap and child care
issue, this will largely be a woman’s problem.
The greater and more equal society we build, the
easier it will be to solve for some of the critical areas
that hold women — and our economy — back.
The lack of universal child care, pay equity gaps
and reduced access to capital for business startup and
expansion are all areas that need to be addressed.
This is a journey we are all on together.
Yes, there will be a time when we no longer need
Women in Business leadership events. I look forward
to that day, but in the meantime, let’s continue to cel-
ebrate the women in our community to remind our-
selves that the work here is not yet done.
If you would like to see the Women in Business
stories or view the video, go to the Seaside Chamber
of Commerce’s Facebook or Instagram account, or go
to YouTube and search “Seaside Women in Business
2022.” Thank you, Katie, and the Seaside chamber, for
this program and the honor of being included.
Jessica Newhall is the associate director of the
Clatsop Community College Small Business Devel-
opment Center. She can be reached at jnewhall@clat-
sopcc.edu.
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