Breaking Through

Chapter 4Role of Women in the Global Economy

Interview with Irene Natividad, Founder and President of Global Summit of Women

The goal is to unleash women's economic power whether it's entrepreneurial or corporate.

What role do women play in the global economy?

What I have seen is that women's economic power has grown. It's not at the top yet—women are not yet CEOs or senior executives in large numbers, but women form the base of every economy in the world including the United States, because they are now 40 to 50 percent of the world's workers. Because women are making money, they are now the majority of consumers with tremendous buying power, and women are the engine behind entrepreneurial growth in every country of the world.

In the United States, 40.4 percent of small businesses are owned by women. These businesses generate 2.3 trillion USD worth of revenues yearly and hire 8 million people in the United States. If you take away women workers, if you take away women consumers, if you take away the buying power and production power of women-owned enterprises, economies of the world would collapse.

Women are the engine behind entrepreneurial growth in every country of the world.

Overall, I think entrepreneurship is the avenue for women to gain a level playing field because they can become their own bosses. Right now, 80 percent of microentrepreneurs globally are women and some will grow to become SMEs.

Therefore, given the fact that women are the growth sector ...