Here’s why you should bet on women, too.

This year, March 8 marks two important dates for me. First off, it’s International Women’s Day. Second, it’s the three-year anniversary of the date that I incorporated my business.

In the past, on International Women’s Day, we’ve talked about how little funding women receive or the fact that only 36% of businesses in Canada are women-owned. These are important topics, especially as we come out of a two-year pandemic that has had an outsized impact on women.

Today, though, we want to talk about why we’re doubling down on women. 

At Angela Wallace Impact Agency, 90% of the brands we’ve worked with have been woman-owned and woman-led. Our team — to which we’re welcoming Arlesha and Kendall this year! — is made up entirely of women. And the AWIA podcast, launching in April 2022, currently features 83% women guests.

Here’s why we’ve made that choice. 

Women-led businesses are more sustainable.

A 2021 study published in the Journal of Corporate Finance found that women directors are more likely than male directors to advocate for the use of renewable energy. Women are also more likely to launch more sustainably-oriented businesses when founding companies.

You don’t need me to tell you just how critical climate justice is at this moment in time. As United Nations Secretary General António Guterres highlighted last year: 

“We have reached a tipping point on the need for climate action. … Our future is at stake.”

I get to see women-led businesses’ commitment to sustainability every day in my work at the Angela Wallace Impact Agency. At Graydon Skincare, for instance, founder Graydon Moffat is committed to changing skincare’s sustainability story. 

Graydon Skincare had already adopted glass bottles for their serums and embraced 50% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles for their skincare that required plastic packaging. But Graydon then took things further, signing up with the nonprofit Pact Collective to ensure that any of their hard-to-recycle packaging gets recycled.That is how you change an industry.

Women-led companies produce happier employees.

Employees at women-led companies tend to report more autonomy, more job satisfaction, and higher levels of belief in their company’s strategy and mission. And as corporations stare down The Great Resignation, finding themselves with record-breaking numbers of open jobs on their hands, that ability to connect with employees matters.

The way that businesses work and engage with their employees is changing, and women can often bring more flexibility, compassion, and understanding to employees’ needs in the workplace. After all, they themselves are often mothers — mothers who need to juggle their jobs and their caretaking roles while also carrying the mental load of their households. 

As businesses scramble to fill open roles and keep employees from resigning, we’re placing our bets with the leaders who are consistently associated with happier employees — and thus, companies operating at full capacity.

Women-led businesses outperform regular companies.

When researchers compared the results of Fortune 1000 companies led by women CEOs to those of the S&P 500 over the span of 12 years, those with women executives saw returns that were three times higher than the average.

In 2021, women received the smallest share of venture capital seen since 2016 — just 2% of all VC funding. This is a shame, since a lack of VC funding impacts women’s ability to grow sustainable, employee-approved, profitable companies.

But that’s not a mistake that we’re making here at AWIA. Here, selfishly, we’re betting on women.

Based on their results? We think you should, too.

Happy International Women’s Day.

Curious about what else you can do to unlock your brand’s purpose and join the future of conscious capitalism? Reach out to Ange for a free consultation call.

© Angela Wallace Impact Agency 2021

Authored by content co-conspirator Kenza Moller: professional story-telling for impact-oriented companies, agencies and thought leaders.