UPDATE: Editor’s note: Added video taken by INQUIRER.net business editor Ma. Salve Duplito.
Attention to detail, ability to multi-task, tendency to think hard – many times – before taking a big leap, and that thing called women’s intuition. These things have allowed Filipinas for many decades to excel in entrepreneurship.
With the changes of the times, women have become more outspoken, assertive and confident. They are more vocal and visible, proving all the more that in the coming years more and more women will be entering the world of business.
The Good News Kapihan yesterday in Makati City was bustling with women power. The speakers themselves were the statement.
In this video, Elizabeth Lee (left), executive vice president of Universal Motors Corp. and president of the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, and Ma. Aurora Geotina-Garcia, chairman and president of CibaCapital, explain why more women are going into and becoming successful in entrepreneurship.
(BootsGeotina-Garcia and Anj Decena)
There was Ma. Aurora Geotina-Garcia, former top SGV “honcho” (in quotes because the word sounds so much like “macho”!) who is now president of Women’s Business Council and holds the title chairman and president of CIBACapital Philippines, Inc.
The other speakers were Elizabeth Lee, president of the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, Inc. and executive vice-president of Universal Motors (and you thought trucks and engines are guy things?), and Anj Decena, glowing in her motherly role, but tough as a businesswoman. Anj started Hotshots (flame-grilled burgers, not KFC) but more importantly has a group called Network For Enterprising Women.
Check out my article ‘Chauvinism has been broken’ in business – women’s group. Excerpt below:
MANILA, Philippines — Women in the Philippines are becoming more and more entrenched in business, successfully navigating the world of golf, cigars and big deals, women business leaders said Wednesday.
Ma. Aurora Geotina-Garcia, president of the Women’s Business Council, said higher need for double incomes in many Filipino families would pave the way for this trend to continue.
“I think the macho chauvinist has been broken,” Garcia said during the Good News Kapihan at Figaro in Makati City.
Filipino families are struggling with a worsening job picture and escalating prices, forcing many women to go abroad for better pay. “Now the women does the work and the husband becomes the houseband,” Garcia said.
When overseas Filipino workers come home to their families with some savings, a common decision is to set up their own business because local jobs cannot match their overseas income.
Pacita Juan, owner of Figaro, a company in a male-dominated industry, pointed out that husbands don’t seem to mind staying home anymore.
Elizabeth Lee, president of the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc., and executive vice-president of Universal Motors Corp. pointed out that 51 percent of entrepreneurs in the Philippines are women. Read more here.
51 percent. That’s a pretty amazing figure. Many businesses are also started by women and taken over by their husbands when the businesses grow bigger. It appears that women are good in creation and men are good with expansion. And to think universities like the University of Asia and the Pacific initially allowed only men to enroll in their entrepreneurship courses!
There are still big hurdles, though. Philippine banks require husbands’ signatures in loan documents. So middle ages, huh? Family demands are high on the list, too. For women entrepreneurs out there who want more inspiration and enlightenment, go to the Philippine Trade Training Center today for a whole-day seminar on Women to Women Mentoring organized by the WBC.
Speakers include the Philippine-born, US-based industrialist Loida Nicholas-Lewis, Citibank Countery Business Manager Nina Aguas, PNB chairperson Flor Tarriela, Universal Motor’s Lee, Sun Microsystems Cynthia Mamon, ABS-CBN’s Maria Ressa and many more. See you!
