Women's Entrepreneurship Day 2022
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. MENG. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak in honor of Women's Entrepreneurship Day, which is celebrated around the world each year on November 19th.
Women-owned U.S. firms make up nearly 20 percent of all firms that employ people and this number is growing. There are nearly 13 million women-owned firms in the U.S. alone and they employ close to 10 million people. As a testament to their success, women-owned firms reported revenues of nearly $1.8 trillion. This is truly astounding and shows you how vital women are to the economy. I applaud these women entrepreneurs and their economically vital businesses.
I also applaud the Women's Entrepreneurship Day movement, which is spearheaded by Wendy Diamond. Since it launched in 2013, the Women's Entrepreneurship Day Organization has annually funded one thousand impoverished women with microloans to start their entrepreneurial journey, hosted a nationwide entrepreneurship training program for 60,000 female college students and early-stage entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia, supported Restart Academy, which provides educational services for 13-21-year-old students in transitional settings, provided financial literacy education to one thousand rural women in the Philippines, and partnered with a Uruguayan university to offer scholarships to young women.
Women's Entrepreneurship Day is now celebrated in 144 countries and 65 universities and colleges internationally, with numerous global ambassadors. The Women's Entrepreneurship Day mission is to empower the nearly four billion women worldwide to be catalysts of change and uplift the over 388 million women and girls living in poverty around the world.
As in past years, the Women's Entrepreneurship Day Organization Pioneer Awards recognize and honor distinguished women who are leaders and innovators across multiple fields with inspiring accomplishments. This year's honorees include:
Janice Bryant Howroyd--Founder and CEO of The ActOne Group of Companies--Business Pioneer
Lele Pons--Celebrity Influencer, NFT and Crypto Enthusiast, 100 million Followers--Influencer Pioneer
Beverly Johnson--Iconic Supermodel--Model Pioneer
Wendy Fisher--Artist, President of the Board of Trustees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation--Art Pioneer
Neeti Mehta--Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer of Automation Anywhere--Technology Pioneer
Amanda Feilding--Countess of Wemyss and March, Founder of the Beckley Foundation, and Psychedelics Pioneer--Science Pioneer
Mitzi Perdue--Founder of CERES Farms, Philanthropist, and Anti-Human Trafficking Advocate--Philanthropy Pioneer
Coco Rocha--Founder of the Coco Rocha Model Camp and Supermodel-- Fashion Pioneer
Marta Belcher--Chair of the Filecoin Foundation and General Council and Head of Policy for Protocol Labs--Web3 Pioneer
Madam Speaker, I urge the entire House to recognize these role models, and to celebrate Women's Entrepreneurship Day this year.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source